Ɛpsilon

From Emma Darwin to Frederick Pollock   23 October [1863?]1

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

Oct 23.

Sir

I write by my husband’s desire to thank you for your very interesting letter. I am sorry to say that he is now so unwell as to be unable to attend to any observations or work of any kind— He is very much interested by the account you give of the inherited variations & the proportion of them & the fact of the frequent occurrence of these variations in one locality is very curious.2 He has heard of facts somewhat analogous to these. He begs me to thank you for the honour you have done him & to say what a pleasure it would have been to have seen these varied plants if his health had permitted him to accept your very kind invitation

I am | Sir yours obediently | Emma Darwin

1
The year is conjectured from the reference to CD’s illness. He was particularly ill from October 1863 into 1864, and Emma Darwin wrote several letters on his behalf; see, for example, Correspondence vol. 11, letter from Emma Darwin to Julius von Haast, 12 December [1863].
2
Pollock’s letter has not been found, but in Variation 1: 383, CD referred to information received from him on the percentages of variegated seedlings in two generations of Ballota nigra (black horehound) raised from wild plants. Pollock lived in Hatton, Middlesex (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4321F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4321F