To J. D. Hooker   9 [April 1862]1

Down

9th

My dear Hooker

One line to say that I shall very much like to examine Vanilla (give specific name if you can), but it will be too late for my Book.2 I am told that Vanilla flowers drop in 3 or 4 hours, which is a queer thing for an orchid.— The menyanthes which you sent me is going to flower in my greenhouse soon!3 If you can remember, when your plants bloom, just look whether you have both the long- & short-styled form.— Also look some day whether you have any Saxifrages with long hairs glandular at the tip.—4

I by no means thought that I produced a “tremendous effect” on Linn. Soc;5 but by Jove the Linn. Soc. produced a tremendous effect on me for I vomited all night & could not get out of bed till late next evening, so that I just crawled home.— I fear I must give up trying to read any paper or speak. It is a horrid bore I can do nothing like other people.—

My dear old friend | Ever yours | C. D.

1
The date is established by the references to the publication of Orchids and to CD’s paper on Catasetum (see nn. 2 and 5, below).
2
See letter from J. D. Hooker, [7 April 1862]. Orchids was about to be printed (see letter to John Murray, 9 April [1862]). CD recorded finishing work on the volume on 28 April (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix II)).
3
CD had recently learned that Menyanthes was dimorphic, and had sought specimens from a number of correspondents (see letter to C. C. Babington, 20 January [1862], and letter from C. W. Crocker, 13 March 1862); he probably included the genus on the list of specimens required for experiment enclosed with the letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 February [1862]. In DAR 110 (ser. 2): 52 there is a note dated ‘1862’ that states: ‘Menyanthes from Kew.— Short-styled ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ set its own pods in plenty.— but none germinated’. This observation is also recorded in Forms of flowers, p. 115.
4
CD had observed that minute flies often became caught in the hairs of Saxifraga umbrosa, and while he believed that this species derived no nutriment from the flies, he wished to know ‘whether some of the more hairy Saxifrages may not profit by caught flies’ (see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 May [1861]). Hooker sent CD specimens of the genus in March 1862, with the promise that he would send others if they were not suitable (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 17 March 1862).
5
See letter from J. D. Hooker, [7 April 1862]. CD read his paper, ‘Three sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum’, before the Linnean Society of London on 3 April 1862.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 hours,] above del ‘drops’
1.6 some] after del ‘when’
1.6 long] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3500,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3500