Ɛpsilon

From M. T. Masters   [c. 15 May 1862]1

Rye Lane | Peckham

My dear Sir

I have to thank you greatly for a copy of your new work on orchid fertilizn.2

I was so struck with your paper at the Linnæan that I promise myself very great pleasure and interest from the perusal of your book3

I see another book is promised on the Variation of plants & animals etc4   I need hardly say that if it is in my power to give you any information as to the natural & abnormal variations in plants (to wh. I have paid some little attention)—I shall be delighted to do so5

Believe me dear Sir | With many thanks | Your’s faithfully | Maxwell T Masters

Ch.as Darwin Esq

1
The date is conjectured from the reference to the publication of Orchids (see n. 2, below).
2
Orchids was published on 15 May 1862 (Freeman 1977, p. 112). Masters’s name appears on CD’s presentation list for the volume (see Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix IV).
3
CD read his paper, ‘Three sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum’, before the Linnean Society of London on 3 April 1862.
4
A notice announcing that CD was preparing Variation for publication appeared in Orchids, p. ii.
5
Masters, a lecturer in botany at St George’s Hospital, London, and his father, the nurseryman William Masters, were frequently cited in Variation.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3551,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3551