From J. T. Moggridge   27 December [1865]1

Maison Fontana | Mentone

Dec. 27

Dear Sir

I have forwarded a tin full of Ophryses2 by my Brother to England for you;3 & as he hoped to take but about 60 hours in the transit, perhaps they may arrive with you in tolerable condition.

⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ each parcel carefully ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ I fear much that the damp may efface much of the writing.— My chief object was to distinguish those which came from spots where last year only Oph. insectifera a. genuina Rch. grew;4 from those which came from habitats of pink-winged Varieties or from places unknown to me—5

Believe me yrs. very truly | J Traherne Moggridge.

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. T. Moggridge, 13 October [1865].
2
See letter to J. T. Moggridge, 13 October [1865] and nn. 2, 3, and 5. In order to determine whether Ophrys arachnites (a synonym of Ophrys fuciflora, the late spider-orchid) and O. apifera (the bee orchid) were crossing and self-fertile forms of the same species, CD had requested that Moggridge mark a half-dozen specimens of O. arachnites, noting the soil and situations in which the plants grew, and dig them up when he left Mentone. CD intended to cultivate the specimens and observe whether they retained the same character. In his letter of 14 October [1865], Moggridge said he would send CD ‘an instalment [of orchids] coming into flower by rail or private hand’.
3
Moggridge’s brother has not been identified.
4
Moggridge wrote ‘a.’ as an abbreviation of ‘aranifera’; ‘Ophrys aranifera genuina’ was described in Reichenbach 1851, pp. 88 and 178.
5
In the text accompanying plate XLIV of Flora of Mentone (Moggridge 1865–8), Moggridge identified, as a variety of Ophrys insectifera (the fly orchid), a form with ‘whitish or pink-tinted petals and sepals’ that flowered in March.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4957,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4957