Ɛpsilon

To J. A. H. de Bosquet   7 June [1853]

Down Farnborough Kent

June 7th.

Dear Sir

In answer to your letter (of April 7th.) containing a drawing of the valves of a Verruca, I ventured to ask you to be so good as to inform me by what name you intended calling it. I shd. also be glad to know whether the outline of the plate, to which the adductor muscle is attached in the fixed scutum, has the almost angular outline as represented by you, or whether it has been broken:1 I shd. be very glad to know, also, whether the basal point of the free or movable tergum is as much rounded, naturally & without attrition, as represented by you.2

I presume your volume will now be soon published.3

I beg to remain, with much respect, & hoping for an answer,— | Dear Sir | Your’s faithfully | Charles Darwin

1
See letter to J. A. H. de Bosquet, 15 April [1853]. In Living Cirripedia (1854): 522, CD stated that: ‘by far the most important character by which this species [Verruca spengleri] can be distinguished from all the others, is the presence, on the under side of the moveable scutum, of a straight, prominent adductor ridge’.
2
CD’s description (Living Cirripedia (1854): 525–6) makes no reference to the basal margin of the movable tergum, but from his letter to Bosquet, 18 June 1853, it is clear that either Bosquet’s letter or the specimens he sent to CD answered the questions.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 (of April 7th.)] interl
1.4 almost angular] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1517,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1517