To Ernst Dieffenbach   15 August [1843]

Down near Bromley | Kent

Aug. 15

Dear Sir

I have just received your letter & lose no time in sending off my notes.1 They appear rather more bulky than they really are.— I hope you will be so good as to take the trouble to introduce them, as I am sure they will render the work more worthy of perusal.— Tomorrow I will write about the wood cuts & copper plate.— Please to return them, when used addressed to me, to the “care of E. Darwin Esqre. 43 Grt. Marlborough St London.”— The jack or jaca tree, is the Artocarpus integrifolia. The organism described at p. 16 belongs in the common opinion to the Vegetable Kingdom & comes near to or under the Confervæ.—

I hope the enclosed bundle of paper will not put you to much expence in Postage, but you forgot to answer my question on that point.—

I fear there is little chance of my seeing Ld Derby,2 but I certainly will bear your claims in mind, shd, I ever hear of any fitting opportunity for the exercise of your talents & knowledge in travelling.3

Believe me dear Sir | in Haste yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
Dieffenbach’s use of these notes for his German translation of Journal of researches makes it the first revised edition of that work. The first revised English edition appeared in 1845.
2
Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby and President of the Zoological Society, kept a famous menagerie at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool. To stock it, he employed agents who collected specimens all over the world.
3
Dieffenbach apparently had an interview with Lord Derby during his visit to England in 1845 (DNZB).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 lose] over ‘loose’
1.5 addressed] interl
1.6 tree,] before del ‘I believe’
1.8 near to] ‘to’ interl
point omitted after : 3.2 ‘claims’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-689,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-689