To J. D. Hooker   18 October [1873]

Apropos of my asking for another sp. of Desmodium, Mr. Rollisson hope to get for me D. polycarpus violaceus; but I know not whether this has 3 leaflets.1 He has sent me 2 fine young specs. of D. gyrans,2 so I am well set up in this respect. I wrote to Balfour about Neptunia—it is lost there.3

Ch.Darwin

Oct 18th.

ApcS

Postmark: OC 18 73

1
This letter was published in Correspondence vol. 21 from a copy at CUL; the original was later found at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. CD had asked Francis Darwin to ask Hooker for another species of Desmodium for his work on movement of plants (see letter to Francis Darwin, 10 October 1873 and nn. 8 and 10). George Rollisson was in charge of Springfield Nursery in Upper Tooting, Surrey (Gardeners’ Chronicle (1880) 1: 23). Desmodium polycarpum (now Desmodium heterocarpon) has three leaflets. ‘D. polycarpus violaceus’ has not been identified.
2
Desmodium gyrans is the telegraph plant, now Codariocalyx motorius.
3
CD probably refers to John Hutton Balfour of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. He discussed Neptunia oleracea (a synonym of N. prostrata) in Movement in plants, pp. 128, 374, 402–3.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9100,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9100