Ɛpsilon

To Daniel Oliver   12 [October 1860]1

15 Marine Parade | Eastbourne

12th

My dear Sir

The Drosera & leaves of Dionæa. arrived quite safe. I am very much interested by them.—   Pray give my best thanks to Sir William, & accept them yourself.—2

I am very busy & get my constant enemy headach; so will not write any more, but I have got a good deal to say first day I can.

Will you try one easy experiment.—   Drop on sensitive hair of Dionæa one drop gently of pure water; & get solution of Carbonate of Ammonia 6 six gr. to 2 two oz of distilled water, & drop this & see if it immediately or within hour or two causes movement. This will not injure leaf.—   Perhaps safer to get 4 gr to 2 oz water3    Also one drop of the C. of Ammonia on disc of leaf.—   I want so much to know whether movement analogous of Dionæa & Drosera.—4

Yours very truly | C. Darwin

1
This and the following letter are dated by the relationship to the letter to Daniel Oliver, 14 October [1860].
2
William Jackson Hooker had agreed to sending CD a living specimen of Drosera spathulata and some detached leaves of Dionaea. See letter to Daniel Oliver, [10 October 1860]. There is a note dated 12 October 1860 (headed ‘Dionæa from Kew’) in DAR 54: 2–3.
3
Oliver wrote on the letter: ‘(ordered 2 grs. to 1oz pure in disd. water)’.
4
CD had hoped to obtain a living specimen of Dionaea so that he could conduct his own comparative experiments (see letter to Daniel Oliver, [29 September 1860]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 get] after del ‘then’
3.2 Carbonate] interl above del ‘C’
3.2 six] above ‘6’
3.2 two] above ‘2’
3.3 immediately] after del ‘soon’
3.4 This … water] added
3.4 get] before del ‘4 oz’
3.4 4 gr to 2 oz] above del ‘2 gr to 4 oz of’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2946,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2946