To W. D. Fox   18 June 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

June 18. 1874

My dear Fox

I know that you observe all natural objects. I am in great want of a living plant of Utricularia. Have you ever seen it in clear ditches in the I. of Wight? If so, could you send me a plant (with a root if it has one) packed in damp moss in a tin box. I enclose habitats from Broomfield;1 but know not whether they are within a drive from you— I do not care about the flowers. I once saw the plant near Eastbourne.

Have you ever met with Pinguicola Lusitanica in the I. of Wight? If you could find it, I wd ask you to observe a point about it whilst in a state of nature; & indeed I shd like to see a specimen.2 I have been working at some very interesting points in P. vulgaris—3

yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
CD enclosed the last page of the letter from W. E. Darwin, [before 18 June 1874], containing a list, copied from Bromfield 1856, of the places in the Isle of Wight where Pinguicula (butterwort) and Utricularia (bladderwort) were found.
2
CD may also have enclosed a version of the letter to ?, 8 June 1874, which he had been circulating and which contained queries about Pinguicula. Pinguicula lusitanica is pale butterwort.
3
CD had been making a series of experiments on an unnamed species of Pinguicula since 31 May 1874, placing a variety of substances on the leaves and observing the extent to which they stimulated secretions; his notes on experiments from June and July 1874 are in DAR 59.1: 34–53.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9499,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9499