To A. G. More   7 June [1862]1

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

June 7th

My dear Sir

If you are well & have leisure, will you kindly give me one bit of information. Does Ophrys arachnites occur in the Isle of Wight? or do the intermediate forms, which are said to connect abroad this species & the Bee O. ever there occur?2

Some facts have led me to suspect that it might just be possible; though improbable in the highest degree, that the Bee might be the self-fertilising form of O. arachnites which requires insects’ aid. Something as we have self-fertilising flowers of the Violet & others requiring insects.3 I know the case is widely different as the Bee is borne on separate plant & is incomparably commoner. This would remove the great anomaly of the Bee being a perpetual self-fertiliser.4 Certain Malpighiaceæ for years produce only one of the two forms. What has set my head going on this, is receiving to-day a Bee having one alone of the best marked characters of O. arachnites.—5

Pray forgive me troubling you and believe me, | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin

1
This letter was previously published in Correspondence vol. 9, transcribed from a copy on which the year is recorded (DAR 146: 405).
2
More had assisted CD with his study of orchid pollination since 1860 by carrying out observations and sending him specimens (see Correspondence vols. 8 and 9). See also letter to A. G. More, 18 May [1862].
3
On CD’s interest in the relationship between Ophrys arachnites (a synonym of Ophrys fuciflora, the late spider-orchid) and O. apifera, see the letter from G. C. Oxenden, [before 30 May 1862], nn. 2 and 3. See also letter to C. C. Babington, 20 January [1862] and n. 9. CD had been interested over a number of years in the occurrence in Viola of small unopening flowers in which self-pollination occurred, a phenomenon later called cleistogamy (see letter to Daniel Oliver, 12 [April 1862] and n. 6); he had recently made observations and notes on the genus (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 May [1862] and n. 7).
4
One of CD’s two objectives in Orchids was to show that the contrivances by which orchids are pollinated had ‘for their main object the fertilisation of each flower by the pollen of another flower’ (Orchids, p. 1). In the conclusion, CD stated: ‘In the Bee Ophrys alone, as far as I have seen, there are special and perfectly efficient contrivances for self-fertilisation’ (Orchids, p. 359).
5
The specimen of the bee-orchis, Ophrys apifera, may have been sent to CD by George Chichester Oxenden (see letter from G. C. Oxenden, 4 June [1862]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.00 there] interl
2.00 self-] interl
2.00 having] above del ‘with’
2.00 alone] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3591,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3591