From Roland Trimen   10 February 1868

71, Guildford Street, | Russell Square, | W.C.

10th. February, 1868.

My dear Mr. Darwin,

I venture to send you the enclosed prospectus of the forthcoming work by my brother and Mr. Dyer, in the hope that you will kindly support the book by your subscription. Hardwicke will not undertake to publish the book unless the expense is “guaranteed” by a certain number of subscribers for copies (I think 300).1

I am very glad that you found my ocelli case of use. I have looked in vain for any instance of an ocellated ♂ and non-ocellated ♀ of the same species.2

I am amused to notice a remark in the last “Saturday Review” (in a critique on Agassiz and spouse’s Amazons Travels), that the principal objection to be noticed is that Agassiz seems to have conducted his researches in that region with the express object of making discoveries adverse to the Darwinian theory!3

Believe me | Faithfully yours | Roland Trimen

Charles Darwin, Esqre. | &c —

CD annotations

2.1 I am … same 2.2] ‘(R. Trimen.) Feb. /68/.’ added ink
2.2 of the same] ‘species.’ added ink
1
Henry Trimen and William Turner Thiselton-Dyer’s Flora of Middlesex was published by Robert Hardwicke (H. Trimen and Thiselton-Dyer 1869).
3
Trimen paraphrases the notice of A journey of Brazil (Agassiz and Agassiz 1868) that appeared in Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art for 8 February 1868, p. 184: ‘It is, indeed, the only objection to be raised against his scientific zeal that he seems to have gone out with a preconceived determination to find evidence against Mr. Darwin’s theories.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5857,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5857