To J. D. Hooker   [9 December 1861]

[Down]

My dear Hooker

Lecoq is a miserable book—, dreadfully spun out, with maudlin speculations & a great dearth of precise facts: I do not believe it would be worth your having, & as here & there, miles apart, I find a reference or fact worth keeping, I will keep the monstrous work.—1

Bates writes he spent with you 3 or 4 of the most agreeable hours he ever spent in his life.—2

C. Darwin

You were, of course, quite right. Bonatea does not at all favour the splitting & subsequent fusion of sepals & petals— The vessels run in Bonatea as in Habenearia.

I cannot get out of my head that these cases throw great doubt on value of vessels in regard to homologies.3

[Enclosure]4

diagram

This seems structure of Bonatea speciosa & you will see what a little change in adhesion would almost convert it into Habenaria.—

Endorsement: ‘Dec 9/61.’

1
CD refers to Lecoq 1854–8, which he had recently purchased. See letters to J. D. Hooker, 25 November [1861] and 1 December [1861].
2
Bates apparently told CD about his visit with Hooker in the part of his letter of [1 December] 1861 that is now missing (see letter to H. W. Bates, 3 December [1861]).
3
See letters to J. D. Hooker, 10 November [1861] and 14 November [1861].
4
The diagram has been reproduced at 60% of its original size.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 Lecoq] ‘q’ over ‘qu’
1.2 having, &] ‘&’ over ‘but’
4.2 as] over ‘in’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3341,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3341