From George Henslow   8 March 1866

10 South Crescent | Bedford Sq W.C.

March 8/66

My dear Sir,

I must apologise for letting your kind letter of Dec 6th. lie unreplied, but I found I was unable to leave London in January, even to attempt to see you.1 I sincerely hope you are better, as I have been given to understand you are, under Dr B. Jones’ treatment.2

Very many thanks for the paper on Kidney Beans,3 & the offer of a duplicate No. of your “tendril papers”, which I feel disposed to accept, even now, if you will allow me; as I have marked & scored my copy all over that it is hardly fit to bind up with the rest of the journals.4

The Editor of the Popular Science Review has asked me to write another article for the July No. on Naudin’s researches on hybrids: &c. & I thought I should like to study the subject first, & compare other writers & observers with his: can you oblige me with any references to such; or any papers on hybridization &c.   if you could I should feel much obliged.5

I feel much tempted to run down, & take the liberty of calling upon you in Easter week if agreeable to yourself; as I shall have a holiday then: but perhaps you will kindly let me know if you are then, well enough to see me.

Yours very Sincerely | Geo Henslow

1
CD’s letter to Henslow has not been found. In his letter to CD of 2 December 1865 (Correspondence vol. 13), Henslow had suggested that he visit CD in January 1866.
2
CD became a patient of Henry Bence Jones in 1865; see Correspondence vol. 13, letter to J. D. Hooker, 27 [or 28 September 1865] and n. 14. On CD’s continuing treatment by Jones during the early part of 1866, see the letter to H. B. Jones, 3 January [1866], and the letter from H. B. Jones, 10 February [1866].
3
In his letter of 2 December 1865 (Correspondence vol. 13), Henslow asked CD whether he might keep a copy of CD’s paper ‘On the agency of bees in the fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers, and on the crossing of kidney beans’ (Correspondence vol. 7, letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, [before 13 November 1858]; Collected papers 2: 19–25). For more on Henslow’s interest in this topic, see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from George Henslow, 1 November 1865 and n. 9.
4
‘Climbing plants’ had been published as a double issue of the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) in June 1865; for more on the paper, its offprints, and separate commercial publication, see Correspondence vol. 13, letter to Asa Gray, 19 April [1865] and n. 16. Henslow’s summary of ‘Climbing plants’ appeared in the January 1866 issue of Popular Science Review (Henslow 1866c).
5
Henslow refers to Charles Victor Naudin; his review of Naudin 1858, 1863, and 1864 included references to the work of CD, Karl Friedrich von Gärtner, William Herbert, John Scott, and Max Ernst Wichura (Henslow 1866b).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5029,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5029