To John Lindley   18 October [1861]1

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

Oct. 18th

My dear Dr. Lindley

I thank you sincerely for your information.2 Your tracing shows that the species is saccatum beyond a doubt.—3 I wrote to Gardener’s Chron. as I thought it would trouble you less to answer in that way.4 I am very much obliged.— I have been extremely much interested with Catasetum, and indeed with many exotic Orchids, which I have been looking at in aid of an opusculus, on the fertilisation of British Orchids. I very much fear that in publishing I am doing a rash act; but Orchids have interested me more than almost anything in my life. Your work shows that you carefully understand this feeling.5

Yours very sincerely & obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The year is provided by the reference to the publication of Orchids.
2
Lindley’s letter has not been found.
3
Catasetum saccatum is discussed in Orchids, pp. 214–31.
4
Lindley was the editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle.
5
Lindley had a special interest in orchids and was the author or editor of a number of works in which the morphology and taxonomy of orchids was described. CD often cited Lindley’s works in Orchids.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3289,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3289