Ɛpsilon

To W. M. Canby   19 February 1873

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Feb 19— 1873

Dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind letter, & for the printed article which is fuller than the MS. that I saw before.1

I find that I erred in supposing that the leaves never opened a second time.2 I did suppose that you resided near the habitation of the Dionea, which I look at as the most wonderful plant in the world.3

If you do visit the proper district I shd be very much obliged if you wd open a dozen oldish leaves to see what sized insects they capture.

I am aware that a very minute insect wd start the leaf, but I suspect that they wd generally escape through the apertures at the bases of the spikes before they are completely interlocked.

With my best thanks, | believe me dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
See letter from W. M. Canby, 1 February 1873 and nn. 2 and 3. CD refers to Canby 1868.
3
CD had confused Canby’s home, Wilmington, Delaware, with the location of the Dionaea (Venus fly trap), Wilmington, North Carolina.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8773,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8773