To John Hutton Balfour   15 September [1864]1

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

Sept 15th

My dear Sir

Will you have the kindness to grant me a little favour, namely to tell me what nurseryman near Edinburgh, I had better apply to for coloured Primroses & Cowslips. I have heard that they are a good deal cultivated there & I cannot hear of them near London.— I wish to try again some of John Scotts remarkable experiments, which he tried on the coloured Primroses in your Bot. Garden.—2

John Scott has sailed for India; he came here to see me, & expressed himself warmly on your kindness to him.—3

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to John Scott’s sailing for India and his visit to Down (see n. 3, below).
2
CD refers to Scott’s experiments on the Primulaceae at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, where he worked as foreman of the propagating department; Scott published the results of these experiments in Scott 1864a. On CD’s interest in the experiments on coloured primroses and cowslips, see the letter to Asa Gray, 13 September [1864] and nn. 11, 13, and 14, and letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 September [1864].
3
Scott probably visited CD at Down on 18 August before sailing for India on 26 August 1864 (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 August 1864], and letters to J. D. Hooker, [16 August 1864] and n. 2, and [23 August 1864]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4613,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4613