Ɛpsilon

To Daniel Oliver   [c. 10 June 1864]1

[Down]

Dear Oliver.—

My paper on Lythrum is to be read on Thursday at Linn. Soc.—2

Will you grant me a favour: I know that you are a good hand at Diagrams; & I believe in 5 or 10 minutes you could copy a diagram in chalk on the board.— The diagram is with my paper.3 The only point to attend to is the relative length of pistils & stamens, & the dotted lines of full fertilisation.— Without the diagram my paper wd. be unintelligible. If you do not attend the meeting, pass this note on to Hooker.—

Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

Prof. Oliver

1
This letter was enclosed with the letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 June [1864].
2
CD’s paper ‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’ was read at the Linnean Society on 16 June 1864.
3
See ‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’, p. 171 (Collected papers 2: 107). The diagram shows the three flower-forms of the plant, with dotted lines indicating which pollen must be applied to each stigma to produce full fertility. The printed diagram corresponds to the sketch that CD enclosed in his letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] (Correspondence vol. 10). The sketch is in DAR 185: 70. CD enclosed a similar sketch in his letter to Asa Gray, [3–]4 September [1862] (Correspondence vol. 10).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4532,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4532