Ɛpsilon

From C. J. Monro   26 April 1874

Hadley, Barnet

26 April 1874

Sir,

I hope you will excuse my troubling you, if there should be no novelty in the subject of my letter. I thought of communicating with you through Mr. Litchfield,1 with whom I have a friendship of old standing; but the enclosure would not be the better for any delay. It consists of a few cherry blossoms sent me last night by a lady whose attention I had called to your letter in Nature about primroses.2 She had observed the ground under a particular tree to be much strewn with them for some years past, and it now appeared that the calyx-tubes were cut some way round as you will see by the specimens. I have been to the place to-day; but yesterday’s cases are more marked, in spite of withering. I observed however that there were a good many blossoms thus attacked on the tree, but I think with these differences:

1. on the tree the aperture was less in the nature of a clean cut, and more like a hole nibbled:

2. it was the exception on the tree when the little cherry inside was attacked, whereas on the ground this seems to be the rule:

3. on the tree I should say a large minority of blossoms were attacked; on the ground I believe the large majority are visibly so.

With respect to primroses it may be worth while to mention that in the only place I know hereabouts in which they are abundant, I could not see any instance of what you describe. But I could only observe them across a hedge.

I am Sir | Your obedient servant | C. J. Monro.

CD annotations

5.1 With respect to … across a hedge. 5.3] double scored blue crayon
Top of letter: ‘& Primrose’ blue crayon; ‘Mr Strachey’3 pencil
Verso of last page: ‘Ap. 21. I examined 10 of flowers sent, 6 of them had ovarium or young cherry blackened & marked, in one case only slightly— the 7th had a very small minute [interl] aperture; 8th & 9th had rather large hole, & the 10th had ovarium cut right through— I infer from this that in biting & [interl] making holes through calyx the ovarium which I suppose lives on is always more or less pinched, & is sometimes cut into; but that the bird does not search for the ovarium, but probably for nectar, or minute insects?’4 ink, crossed pencil
1
Richard Buckley Litchfield was CD’s son-in-law.
2
Letter to Nature, 18 April [1874]. The lady has not been identified.
3
CD had received information from Richard Strachey about bees biting the tubes of flowers to extract nectar (see Correspondence vol. 21, letter from Richard Strachey, 9 December 1873, and letter to Richard Strachey, 10 December [1873]).
4
CD discussed the cherry blossoms in his letter to Nature, 7 and 11 May [1874].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9428,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9428