Ɛpsilon

To Louis Rérolle   2 August [1869]1

Down, Beckenham | Kent

Aug 2d

Dear Sir

I am glad to learn that you are making such rapid progress in your translation.—2

“Distal” is a term used by English anatomists to express the part at greater distance from the body: as the tibia is the distal half of the leg.— It means the extreme or more remote half of the labellum from centre of flower.—

Thrips is name of genus or group, & is used by Latreille, who places it under his “Aphidiens”: but it is very different from an Aphis or puceron. I believe that entomologists do not now place Thrips & Aphis close together.3

Pray use your own discretion about such epithets as “saddle-formed”—“boat-shaped” &c &c—; but I think it would be advisable to use them once.—

By “bank” at p.40 I referred to a steep grassy slope, with no bushes & fully exposed to strong winds.—

I am much obliged for your offer to look at your M.S, but as I am far from strong & much engaged, I will not accept your kindness.—

The day before yesterday I despatched a note (& it is the last which I shall have to send) on Epipactis palustris, addressed to “Place d’Ainay, Lyon”: if you have not received it, will you be so good as to enquire at your post-office.4

Pray believe me | dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Louis Rérolle, 30 July 1869 (Correspondence vol. 17).
2
Rérolle was translating Orchids into French (Rérolle trans. 1870).
3
Pierre André Latreille had included the genus Thrips in his family Aphidien; see Latreille [1802–5], 12: 338–52. In 1836, Alexander Henry Haliday erected a new order for Thrips, the Thysanoptera, which he separated from the Hemiptera (true bugs), the order that included aphids (see Haliday 1836, p. 440). Puceron: aphid (French). See Orchids 2d ed., pp. 122, 126.
4
CD’s letter to Rérolle has not been found, but his additional notes on orchids were published in ‘Fertilization of orchids’ and Orchids 2d ed. CD had asked Alexander Goodman More to make observations on Epipactis palustris (Correspondence vol. 17, letter to A. G. More, 24 June [1869]). CD’s account of More’s observations is in ‘Fertilization of orchids’, pp. 149–50 (Collected papers 2: 146). See also Orchids 2d ed., pp. 98–9, and Rérolle trans. 1870, pp. 101–2.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.2 the leg] ‘the’ interl
2.3 half … labellum] interl
6.1 at] after del ‘ove’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6848F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6848F