To J. S. Henslow   10 November [1855]1

Down Bromley Kent

Nov. 10th

My dear Henslow

I am very much obliged for the seeds, especially for the experimental seeds. I send a P. order for 10s for a douceur for your good little Botanists, & I am sure the girl who counted the Parsnip seeds deserves a perfect dowry.—2

It so happens, & not from caprice, that I care less for the seeds for salting, because I formerly, from often having met accounts of floating plants off the mouths of estuaries, I assumed that half-dried plants with their fruit or pods would certainly float for several weeks, but having tried some 30 or 40 plants I have found only a single one which floated after a month’s immersion, & most sink after one week. So that I am almost foiled about sea-transportal.3 I may mention, the Capsicum seed germinated excellently after 137 days immersion in salt-water & Celery pretty well after the same period.— I shall, however, finish my work & try those seeds which you have sent, & those which are not yet quite dry; but pray take no more trouble on subject.—

I have written & sent off a very gracious note to Mess. Vilmorin4

The seed of “Lychnis dioica in a field of Lucerne, Hitcham”, I presume was the white-flowered kind; I shall understand it to be so if I do not hear to contrary. Also as you were so kind as to superintend the counting of the Parsnip seed, I presume that of course the two seeds to each flower was calculated by the little girl.—

Do you remember saying that you thought that you could obtain for me information regarding Hollyocks. I am very curious on this subject & it is a curiosity of several years standing.5 I have myself made some experiments, & have got some apparently good crossed seeds & have castrated some other plants & let the insects do their work, but I shd. be particularly glad to hear what the great growers think; if you would, therefore, when at leisure (but this I fancy, never comes, but when less busy than usual) send the enclosed queries (& there is no hurry) I shd. be much obliged.—6 You will see I have headed the queries with a note to you, the object of which is to show Mrs. Chator7 that I am intimate with you, & therefore a respectable person. Very hearty thanks for all the trouble you take for me.

My dear Henslow | Most truly yours | C. Darwin

1
Although the letter is dated 10 November, it seems that CD did not send it immediately since he refers to an enclosure, the draft of which is dated 12 November 1855 (see next letter).
2
See letters to J. S. Henslow, 2 July [1855] and 7 July [1855].
3
CD published a brief summary of his final results in Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 47, 24 November 1855, p. 773 (see letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, 21 November [1855]). A more detailed report, which also included the results of Miles Joseph Berkeley’s experiments, was read by CD before the Linnean Society on 6 May 1856 (Collected papers 1: 264–73).
4
The firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie in Paris, the most celebrated horticulturists in France. Henslow may have met Louis de Vilmorin at the Paris Exhibition (see letter to J. S. Henslow, 29 October [1855], n. 1).
5
See Notebook E, pp. 144 and 183, and Questions & experiments notebook, pp. 2 and 14 (Notebooks); see also Correspondence vol. 2, letter from William Herbert, 5 April 1839.
6
The enclosure has not been found, but CD’s draft, dated 12 November 1855, is in DAR 206 (Letters). See letter to J. S. Henslow, 12 November 1855.
7
William Chater was an Essex nurseryman and landscape gardener who specialised in hollyhocks (R. Desmond 1977). See Variation 2: 107–8 for a brief account of the results of CD’s experiments.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 formerly] above del ‘before’
2.6 one week] ‘one’ altered from ‘a’
2.7 immersion in salt-water] interl
2.9 ; but pray … on subject— 2.10] added; ‘; but’ over ‘—’
4.1 the] interl
5.4 other] interl
5.8 queries] above del ‘letter’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1778,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1778