From Robert Bateman   [28 January 1862]1

Biddulph Grange, | Congleton.

Tuesday.

Dear Sir.

My father being obliged to leave home early this morning was unable to answer your note which he hopes to do tomorrow.2 Meanwhile he bids me to send you three other species which he hopes will be of service, namely a Phaius, Leptotes & Goodyera.3 The names of the orchids of which you send notes are the following.

1. “Labellum pale spotted with purple, sepals & petals green with purple spots”

Zygopetalum crinitum.

2. Odontoglossum Bictoniense.

3. Odontoglossum pulchellum

4   Calanthe vestita.

5. Purple Cattleya-like flower

Laelia anceps.

6   The Angræcum is a A. Sesquipedale & is from

Madagascar

Believe me | Dear Sir | Yrs very truly | Robert Bateman.

to Dr Darwin.

CD annotations

Verso of first page: ‘Phaius like Cattleya | Leptotes like Cattleya | I shall have to add several genera to Foreign Orchids’ pencil 4
1
Dated by reference to CD’s commenting in the letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 [and 26] January [1862] that he had just received a box of orchids from James Bateman, Robert Bateman’s father, that included a specimen of Angraecum sesquipedale. The following Tuesday was 28 January.
2
See n. 1, above. CD’s letter to James Bateman has not been found. For Bateman’s reply, see the letter from James Bateman, [1 February 1862].
3
James Bateman’s assistance in providing orchid specimens is acknowledged in Orchids, pp. 114 n., 158 n., and 197).
4
CD mentioned the similarity between the general manner of fertilisation of Leptotes, Phaius, and Cattleya in Orchids, p. 164.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3357,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3357