To George Bentham   26 November [1861]1

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

Nov. 26th

My dear Bentham

Our notes have crossed on the road. I know it is an honour to have a paper in the Transactions & I am much obliged to you for proposing it, but I shd. greatly prefer to publish in Journal.2 Nor does this apply exclusively to myself, for in old days at Geolog. Soc. I always protested against an abstract appearing when the paper itself might appear.—3 I abominate, also, the waste of time (& it would take me a day) in making an abstract.— If the Referee on my paper should recommend it to appear in Transactions, will you be so kind as to lay my earnest request before the Council that it may be permitted to appear in the Journal.—

You must be very busy with your change of residence;4 but when you are settled & have some leisure perhaps you will be so kind as to give me some cases of dimorphism like that of Primula.— Should you object to my adding them to those given me by A. Gray?5 By the way I heard from A. Gray this morning & he gives me two very curious cases in Boriginaceæ.6

Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

I am much pleased that you approve of my Primula paper.—

P.S. As this note was written before your very interesting note arrived this morning, I send it off, as I have not time to write by todays post.7

Cordial thanks.— | In Haste | C.D.—

1
The year is provided by the relationship to the letter from George Bentham, 26 November 1861.
2
See letter to George Bentham, 24 November [1861]. An earlier note that CD had apparently received is missing.
3
CD served as secretary of the Geological Society of London from 1838 to 1841.
4
The Benthams, who had spent several months without permanent quarters, were moving into 25 Wilton Place, London (Jackson 1906, p. 190).
5
In his paper on Primula, published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 6 (1862): 77–96, CD included information provided by Asa Gray on cases of dimorphism in Rubiaceae (see also Collected papers 2: 62).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 & have some leisure] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3330,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3330