Ɛpsilon

To W. H. Newberry   24 March 1882

Down. | Beckenham. Kent.

March 24th. 1882.

Dear Sir.

I am sorry to say that Hildebrand & Delpino have described the very curious mechanism of the Flowers of Maranta.—1 You will find references to the works in H. Müller’s “Die Befruchtung der Blumen”. which you would find in any public Library.—2 A few years ago, I made many observations on the allied Thalia dealbata, but could not satisfy myself, whether the movements were purely mechanical or whether the pistil was irritable—as appeared to me to be the case.3 The whole phenomena is most curious—

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully. | Ch. Darwin.

I am unwell, otherwise I would have gladly looked to my notes & given you more information.

Copy

1
Newberry’s letter to CD has not been found. Friedrich Hildebrand had given detailed observations of the structure of the reproductive organs of Maranta zebrina (a synonym of Goeppertia zebrina, zebra-plant) in a review of the first part of Federico Delpino’s work on dichogamy (Delpino 1868–75; see Hildebrand 1870, pp. 617–19 and table 10, figs. 2–9). In flowers of Maranta, the style is enveloped by a hooded staminode, which has a trigger appendage on one side. A visiting insect must depress the trigger to release the style, which then rapidly curls up.
2
Hermann Müller had cited the work of Hildebrand and Delpino in his discussion of the reproductive organs of some species of Maranta in Die Befruchtung der Blumen (The fertilisation of flowers; H. Müller 1873, p. 87).
3
Having closely observed flowers of Thalia dealbata (powdery alligator-flag), CD had suggested that the pistil appeared to be sensitive to touch (see Correspondence vol 26, letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 14 July [1878]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13737,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13737