From John Lindley   [before 2 September 1843]

Dear Sir

I am infinitely obliged to you for your interesting communications1 which I wd have acknowledged sooner had I been able. The Gentians are new to me, and I think form a valuable addition to the little we know about double flowers.

The Cabbage leaf is not very uncommon.

Thanks too for the Viola—

You will be interested in knowing that a very curious monster found this year near Ely shows the ovule—its nucleus I mean—to be another of the forms of the growing point—quite a new, & to me at least unexpected, fact, which was much wanted to complete the theory of morphological structure.2 The evidence is perfect.

Your Scotch seeds3 proved Rumex Acetosella & this Atriplex—What species I do not know— At present I cannot find it in books. I have sent it to Henslow and shall show it to others— It cannot be any var of A. patula I think.

Very truly yours | John Lindley

1
See letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, [late August 1843].
2
Refers to the theory of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that all the parts of a plant are metamorphosed leaves. CD accepted the theory as demonstrating the unity of type one would expect under an evolutionary point of view. See Foundations, pp. 38–41, 214–18. The doctrine was considered atheistical by those who maintained that each species was created perfect and immutable.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-690,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-690