Ɛpsilon

To A. W. Bennett   11 March [1873]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

March 11

My dear Sir

I heard only a few days ago that you had ceased to assist the Editor of Nature, & I was extremely sorry to hear it.2

It has just occurred to me to ask you where the wood-blocks are, (which belong to the Linn. Soc.) of the Climbing Plants.3 I am interested on this, as I shall have to borrow them before very long, & they might easily get mislaid at Mss Macmillan’s.—

Will you take promptly the proper steps, & kindly inform me, that I may know where they are. Excuse this trouble, & believe me, Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from A. W. Bennett, 16 March 1873.
2
Bennett had been subeditor of Nature since 1871; the editor was Norman Lockyer (ODNB).
3
Bennett had borrowed woodblocks used to print images for ‘Climbing plants’ in order to reprint them in an article he was planning for the journal Nature, which was published by Macmillan & Co.; the article never appeared (see also Correspondence vol. 20, letter from A. W. Bennett, 22 November 1872 and n. 3). ‘Climbing plants’ had been published by the Linnean Society (Freeman 1978) and was reprinted as a book, Climbing plants, by Williams & Norgate. CD had begun work on corrections for Climbing plants 2d ed. in January 1873 (Journal (Appendix II)); it was published by John Murray in 1875.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9350,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9350