To J. O. Westwood   4 September [1861]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Sept. 4th

My dear Sir

I thank you cordially for all the great trouble, which you have so kindly taken for me.— Positively I have never seen your paper by Morren, or heard of its existence, except in your previous note.—2 I will write to Gardeners’ Chron. & see whether Lindley knows.—3

I do not possess Todds Cyclop. of Phy. &c:4 is there an article on the fertilisation of Orchids?

I received last night the two Sphexes, & I thank you much for so kindly sending them; but unfortunately the pollen-masses do not belong to Orchids (I have removed only one) but to Asclepias, which abounds in N. America, & requires, equally with Orchids, insect-aid.—5

I am really sorry to trouble you, but how can I return the insects if not by Post? Shall I leave them at the British Museum in Dr Gray’s hands, addressed to you, when I next go to London?6 But I shall not be in London for a month or two.— When you write to tell me what to do, will you tell me about Todd.—

With many thanks | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter from J. O. Westwood, 26 September 1861.
3
See the first letter to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, [before 14 September 1861]. The botanist John Lindley was the editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle.
4
Robert Bentley Todd edited The cyclopedia of anatomy and physiology (1835–59).
5
CD had asked Westwood to send him specimens of insects with orchid pollen-masses attached to their probosces (see letter to J. O. Westwood, 15 August [1861]). Sphex is a genus of solitary wasp.
6
John Edward Gray was keeper of the zoological collection of the British Museum.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.3 but] ‘b’ over ‘I’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3243,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3243