Ɛpsilon

To William Harris1   4 March [1851]

Down. Farnborough Kent

March 4th.

My dear Sir

At last I have finished the last proof of my little monograph, & am enabled to return you your specimens with very many thanks. I hope that they will reach you quite safely. I have named two new species from your collection;2 I have no doubt it contains several other new forms, but all your specimens are so young that I dare not attach names to them.3 I have enclosed a catalogue of such specimens, as I could venture even approximately to name.— One of the species described from your specimens viz. S. tuberculatum, is an unusually well-defined & interesting species.— You have but few specimens of it; otherwise I shd. have begged for one or two to present to the British Mus. with the rest of my collection.—

Once again accept my best thanks & believe me, dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

The second species, described from your collection, P. semilatus is a unique specimen.—

1
Harris had lent CD several fossil cirripedes (see Correspondence vol. 4, letter to William Harris, 6 August [1850]).
2
Scalpellum tuberculatum and Pollicipes semilatus (Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 43, 72).
3
Even the valves from the two species identified and named by CD were minute: he recorded that in Harris’s specimens of S. tuberculatum the carina measured only 0.2 inches and the terga less than 0.15 inches (Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 43).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 from] after omitted point
3.1 a] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1393,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1393