To J. D. Hooker   [30 and 31 December 1861]1

[Down]

Monday Evening

Will you ask Mr Gower to send me 2 or 3 flowers of Heterocentrum Mexicanum mentioned in Gardeners Chronicle in enclosed envelope,—as I am trying experiments of H. roseum, & the sight of another species might be of much use to me.—2

Ever yours | C. Darwin

if any other Melastomad with 8 anthers is in flower I shd be glad to see it.— Tuesday Morning Many thanks for note & foreign letter.—3 I am bad today with 2 of my Boys bad—4 But I shall indulge myself with a note to you some day soon.—

I should rather like to see Eulophia, but if you are not well or very busy do not send it—5 Mr G. could send the Heterocentron & cause you no trouble—

1
Dated by the relationship to the letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1861]. In 1861, 30 December fell on a Monday.
2
William Hugh Gower was a foreman at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A notice in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 28 December 1861, pp. 1137–8, recommended Heterocentron mexicanum as a good winter plant. CD was investigating dimorphism in Heterocentron (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 November [1861]).
3
See letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1861]. The ‘foreign letter’ has not been found; it is possible that it was from Charles Victor Naudin (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 December 1861], CD annotations).
4
Emma Darwin recorded in her diary on 30 December 1861 that Francis and Horace Darwin were ‘feverish’.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 mentioned … Chronicle] interl
5.1 but] after del ‘if’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3576,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3576