To John Lindley   15 December [1861]1

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

Dec 15

My dear Lindley

Very many thanks for the Bolbophyllum & I was glad to see the curious little flower. This genus rather puzzles me.—2

With many thanks | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin

P.S. | I am so nearly ready for press, that I will not ask for anything more; unless indeed you stumbled on Mormodes in flower.—

As I am writing I will just mention that I am convinced from rudimentary state of ovules, & from state of stigma, that whole plant of Acropera luteola (& I believe A. Loddigesii) is Male.3 Have you ever seen any form from same countries which could be females? Of course no answer expected unless you have ever observed anything to bear on this— I may add from state of ovules & of pollen, Catasetum tridentatum is Male (& never seeds according Schomburgk whom you have accidentally misquoted in Veg. K.)4   Monacanthus viridis is female, Myanthus barbatus is the Hermaphrodite form of same species.—5

1
The year is provided by the reference to the publication of Orchids, which appeared in May 1862.
2
See letters to John Lindley, 16 November [1861] and 17 November [1861]. CD examined four species of Bolbophyllum, which are briefly described in Orchids, pp. 169–72.
4
CD refers to Schomburgk 1837, which was cited in Lindley 1853. The misquotation was Lindley’s statement that Robert Hermann Schomburgk found Catasetum to produce seeds abundantly and that he therefore thought it to be female (Lindley 1853, p. 178).
5
Catasetum tridentatum and Monachanthus viridis are synonyms of Catasetum macrocarpum, the jumping orchid; Myanthus barbatus is a synonym of Catasetum barbatum, the bearded catasetum..

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

4.2 whole plant of] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3344,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3344