My dear Dr. Sanderson.
I hear from Frank that Drosera has been behaving perversely.2 I write a line, as it may possibly have a bearing on this perversity, viz that the motor influence is sent from the excited glands more quickly & completely in a longitudinal than in a transverse direction in the lamina of the leaf.3
Yours very sincerely | Ch Darwin
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 9 September [1873].
CD had sent Drosera plants to Burdon Sanderson (see letter to J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 9 September [1873]). See letter from Francis Darwin, [30 September 1873].
For CD’s experiments on the transmission of the motor impulse in the tentacles of Drosera, see Insectivorous plants, pp. 236–54.
Manuscript Alterations and Comments
1.2 viz] interl
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9081,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on