To Daniel Oliver   [22–3 September 1860]1

15 Marine Parade | Eastbourne

My dear Sir

This is my address.—   I will write soon— I am grateful for your last note.—

I am dying to hear about pure gum2

[Yours] | C. Darwin.

P.S.3 | Will you be so kind as to dry a little of your Gum used on Drosera & burn it; perhaps you would detect smell of animal matter if any gelatine or glue used or size4 used.—

Any corrosive Sublimate??5

Could you send me, when you write, one leaf (& name) of Australian Drosera, that I may see it out of idle curiosity.—6

1
Dated by CD’s reference to having arrived in Eastbourne. CD and the children left Down on 22 September (‘Journal’; Appendix II). The letter was written prior to receiving Oliver’s reply (see letter from Daniel Oliver, 25 September 1860).
3
The postscript is on a separate slip of paper. The contents indicate that it belongs to this letter.
4
Size: ‘an agglutinant consisting of undried glue’ (EB).
5
This sentence was added in pencil.
6
See letter to Daniel Oliver, 11 September [1860]. There is a note headed ‘Drosera spathulata Australia from Kew’ that is dated ‘Sept. 28th—/60/’ in DAR 54: 5.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

4.1 of] before del ‘the’
4.1 your] added
4.3 .—-] added, pencil
5.1 Any corrosive Sublimate??] added, pencil

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2924,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2924