To George Dickie   [5 July 1861]1

2. Hesketh Crescent | Torquay

Saturday

Dear Sir

I thank you most sincerely for the Listera, which I have been very glad to examine.2 But most unfortunately from being packed in wood Box, instead of tin, the moss was almost dry, & even the buds partly withered, so that the rostellum would not show any signs of the curious vital action peculiar to this genus.— This is the more unfortunate

AL incomplete

1
The dating is based upon the reference in the letter to George Gordon, 6 July [1861] to CD’s having received Dickie’s Listera specimens ‘yesterday’. Although 6 July 1861 was a Saturday, CD clearly states in the letter to George Gordon, 6 July [1861] that he also wrote to Dickie ‘yesterday’.
2
Dickie, professor of botany at Aberdeen University, sent CD specimens of Listera cordata (a synonym of Neottia cordata, heartleaf twayblade; see Orchids, p. 152). He had previously supplied CD with information about another plant that grew near Aberdeen (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from George Dickie, 1 December 1856).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3198,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3198