From George Bentham   29 November 1861

Royal Gardens Kew

Nov 29/61

My dear Darwin

The Oxalis pairs distinguished on account of the proportion of the stamens and styles, and which have nevertheless been supposed to belong to one species are according to Zuccarini

O. fulgida and rubella

O. macrostylis and tubiflora

O laburnifolia and sanguinea

O. canescens and secunda

O. gracilis and reclinata

O. cuneata and cuneifolia

(Zuccar. Nachtr. Amer. Oxal. p. 19)1 and I believe there are several others2

Yours very sincerely | George Bentham

CD annotations

1.4 O. fulgida … cuneifolia 1.9] ‘Oxalis’ added ink
2
CD cited Bentham concerning dimorphism in Oxalis at the end of his paper ‘On the two forms, or dimorphic condition, in the species of Primula, and on their remarkable sexual relations’, Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 6 (1862): 77–96 (see also Collected papers 2: 62).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3332,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3332