Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   18 [September 1869]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

18th

My dear Hooker

We shall all be right glad to see you this day week; let us know Trains to Orpington & in all probability we can send to meet you.—

I much want a query answered.— Consult any of your colleagues learned in physiology.— When a large piece of bark is removed from a tree, does the bark ever regrow in isolated points, separate from the growing margins of the surrounding bark. I fancy I have heard that this is sometimes the case.— It bears on Pangenesis & on little powers of repair by plants.2

If you can answer in affirmative pray send me a line,—if I do not hear, I shall understand your answer is a negative—.

Yours affect, | C. Darwin

1
The month and year are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 24 September 1869.
2
CD discussed the regrowth of bark in his letter to Scientific Opinion, [before 20 October 1869], drawing an analogy with the regrowth of amputated limbs in some animals. CD added a section on the regrowth of amputated parts to his discussion of pangenesis in the second edition of Variation (Variation 2d ed., 2: 357–9), but did not discuss plants.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
2.3 the surrounding] ‘the’ interl
2.4 this] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6896,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6896