From Daniel Oliver   9 June 1866

Royal Gardens Kew

June 9/1866

My dear Sir/

Your plant is, I think, Anchusa italica 1

Schacht’s ‘Lehrbuch’2 I am afraid you will not find at Linn. Soc. If you think it worth while referring to I suppose we might make an exception again to our stringent rule about lending books!3

very sincerely yrs | Dl. Oliver

1
Anchusa italica ( a synonym of A. azurea var. azurea) is a Mediterranean herbaceous perennial that was introduced to British gardens in the nineteenth century (Coats 1968, pp. 15–17). CD evidently enclosed a request for Oliver to identify the plant in his letter to J. D. Hooker, [4 June 1866].
2
Oliver refers to the Lehrbuch der Anatomie und Physiologie der Gewächse (Textbook on the anatomy and physiology of perennials) by Hermann Schacht (Schacht 1856–9). In his chapter on pangenesis in Variation 2: 384, CD cited Schacht 1856–9, 2: 12, on ‘adventitious buds’, which CD said might be formed ‘almost anywhere’ in plants.
3
CD occasionally requested books from the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, when he was unable to obtain a copy from the Linnean Society (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 8, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1860]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5116,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5116