Ɛpsilon

To Chauncey Wright   28 October 1871

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Oct 28 1871

My dear Mr Wright

I am glad to hear that you have written your paper on Phyllotaxy, & I am sure that you must have found it a very difficult subject to make clear.1

It pleases me that you are satisfied with the appearance of your pamphlet. I am sure that it will do our cause good service; & this same-opinion Huxley has expressed to me. In number 2 of the Journal of the Anthropolog. Institute, just published, there is a very short but favourable notice of it.2

Your letter arrived just one day after the return of my two sons from America.3 They enjoyed their tour exceedingly; & I think Cambridge more than all the rest. I am sure I feel grateful for the extraordinary kindness with which they were treated. When you meet any of their friends I hope that you will say how thoroughly they enjoyed themselves & how grateful they feel.

I can quite understand yr hesitation in screwing up yr courage to come all the way to Europe; should you ever come here I shall be truly glad to see you.

Thank you for your offer of sending me yr paper on Phyllotaxy when published, as I shall be very glad to see it.4

Pray believe me | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
See letter from Chauncey Wright, 11 October 1871. CD refers to Wright 1871c.
2
CD refers to his reprint of Wright’s review of St George Jackson Mivart’s Genesis of species (Mivart 1871a; Wright 1871a; Wright 1871b). A notice of it was printed in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute 1 (1871–2): 261–2. CD also refers to Thomas Henry Huxley; see letter from T. H. Huxley and H. A. Huxley, 20 September 1871.
3
George Howard and Francis Darwin had been touring the United States (see letter to Asa Gray, 16 July [1871]). See also letter from Chauncey Wright, 11 October 1871.
4
There is a lightly annotated offprint of Wright 1871c in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL; Wright sent it in March 1872 (see Correspondence vol. 20, letter from Chauncey Wright, 3 April 1872).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8033,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8033