To Mary Elizabeth Lyell   [19? October 1866]1

Down

Friday

My dear Lady Lyell

I should be delighted & honoured by Mrs Somerville’s using any of the diagrams in my Orchid book.2 But it is more Mr Murray’s affair than mine.3 If this note were shewn to him I have no doubt he would give permission & do what is necessary.

Pray believe me yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
The date is conjectured from the relationship between this letter and the letter from Mary Somerville, 30 October 1866, and the estimated time needed for post to go to and from Italy.
2
The letter requesting permission for Mary Somerville to use the illustrations has not been found. Somerville used fourteen illustrations from Orchids in her book On molecular and microscopic science (Somerville 1869, 1: 389–403). CD’s copy of Somerville 1869 is in the Darwin Library–Down House.
3
John Murray, CD’s publisher, owned the woodcuts for the illustrations of Orchids.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5249,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5249