Ɛpsilon

To ?   12 July [1872–4]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

July 12

Dear Sir

I am sorry to say that I have no strength or time to hunt for the Herminium, unless for some very definite scientific purpose.—2 I have failed to make the seeds of Orchids germinate. From what I have heard, it seems probable that all kinds germinate at first as parasites on some mosses, lichens, or algæ.3

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year range is established by the headed notepaper, which is of a sort that CD used between 1872 and 1874. The correspondent has not been identified.
2
CD discussed Herminium monorchis, the musk orchis, in Orchids, pp. 74–5, and later described its unique manner of fertilisation in ‘Fertilization of orchids’, pp. 145–6. CD had found plants of this species growing on ‘Orchis Bank’ (the Darwin family name for Downe Bank; LL 1: 116). This orchid is rare in Britain.
3
At this time, the process of seed germination in orchids was recognised as not being well understood, although seeds had been successfully germinated as early as 1832 and a horticultural method described in detail by David Moore in 1849 (Arditti 1984, pp. 370–1). For more on the history of research on the topic, see Arditti 1984.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 Orchids] after del ‘[one]’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8406F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8406F