Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   5 October [1856]1

Downe Bromley Kent

Oct 5th

My dear Hooker

I write merely to ask you to send the seeds, for which I am in no hurry, & for which I am extremely much obliged,2 addressed (not like water plants) to. diag C. Darwin

care of G. Snow

Nag’s Head

Borough.ramme This is safer, course, though not prompt enough for water pods.—

Also hearty thanks for enquiries about Cytisus;3 I quite agree evidence not sufficient for so marvellous a statement; & how extraordinary that any Botanist, believing that he had witnessed such a phenomenon, & yet that it should not for ever after have impressed his mind! Such obtusity alone would make me doubt his evidence.—

Adios | C. Darwin

You will think it odd but I am glad to disbelieve the Cytisus story. Species would change too quickly, if such stories were true!

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 September [1856].
2
It is not clear from the correspondence what seeds CD had requested.
3
See letters to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] and 8 September [1856].

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.4 Such] ‘S’ over ‘Th’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1969,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1969