To [Richard Kippist]1   4 June [1865]2

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

June 4

My dear Sir

I am much obliged for your very kind note.3 I am glad to say I am much better, tho’ still far from strong & living in my bedroom.4 I was extremely stupid about the books. The Vol. for 1843 is right; & will you be so good as to have ready for the carrier on Thursday mg.5 the other vol for 1844 p. 295 a paper by Dutrochet.6 The wrong vol shall then be returned7

My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
The recipient is likely to have been Richard Kippist, the librarian of the Linnean Society. Similar requests for books addressed to Kippist in CD’s hand are also in the collection of the American Philosophical Society (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 11, letter to Richard Kippist, 13 May [1863 or 1868]).
2
The year is established by CD’s reference to Dutrochet 1843 and Dutrochet 1844 (see n. 6, below).
3
The letter from Kippist has not been found.
4
According to CD’s ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 13, Appendix II), he had been ill since 22 April 1865.
5
A carrier service to and from London was operated every Thursday by George Snow, the village coal-dealer (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1862).
6
CD refers to Dutrochet 1843 and Dutrochet 1844, articles in Comptes rendus hebdomadaires de séances de l’Académie des Sciences on the twining characteristic of certain plants. CD may have been checking the proofs of ‘Climbing plants’, which appeared in the double issue of the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany), 12 June 1865; he had started correcting the proof-sheets in April 1865 (see letter to Asa Gray, 19 April [1865]). A note in pencil on the verso of the first page of CD’s manuscript copy of ‘Climbing plants’ (DAR 17 and 18) reads (DAR 17.1: B2 v.), ‘The second note** has not been sent’: this may refer to the references to Dutrochet 1843 and 1844 that were to appear in ‘Climbing plants’, p. 2 n. The reference to Dutrochet 1844 that appeared in the first note on page 2 of ‘Climbing plants’ is on a separate scrap of paper on p. 28 v. of the manuscript (facing p. 29). CD’s copy of the proofs for ‘Climbing plants’ is in DAR 213.2.
7
Two volumes of the Comptes rendus were published in 1844, volumes 18 and 19. CD evidently ordered volume 18 in error.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4851,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4851