From J. D. Hooker   1 July 1874

Royal Gardens Kew

July 1/1874

Dear Darwin

Do not bother yourself about the health of the plants— they are quite forgotten I assure you!— only if you care to have any nursed, pray send them here for your purpose, not for our’s.1

I should much like to go to Down for a Sunday— might I go on Saturday 11th if nothing prevents?2

Nepenthes I have quite given the slip to; & I do not think that Dyer ever examined the bits of eggs that I last hung in the pitchers— I am however really getting a plant up in an enclosure for special observation, where it cannot be interfered with3

I have splendid Sarracenias4 & will perform any miracle you put me up to regarding them.

I am charmed with your account of Pinguicula: & should like to try if Lychnis viscosa has the same use for its viscid fluid— which I should have guessed was to prevent insects climbing up to the Flower— but all these things now go by contraries!—5

I have written for English Utricularia for you.6

I have had a deal to do of late, & in hand so no more from

Yours ever affec | J D Hooker.

1
Hooker may refer to specimens of Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Portuguese sundew or dewy pine). In his letter to William Turner Thiselton-Dyer of 26 June 1874, CD mentioned that Hooker was going to try to send him another plant of Drosophyllum.
2
According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), Hooker arrived at Down on Saturday 11 July 1874.
3
In October and November 1873, Hooker had studied the tropical pitcher-plant Nepenthes, using CD’s experimental protocol, to determine whether it could digest animal matter. Hooker had not had time to pursue the work further, but had asked Thiselton-Dyer to assist him (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 March [1874] and n. 12).
4
Sarracenia (trumpet pitchers) is a genus of North American pitcher-plants of the family Sarraceniaceae.
5
CD had sent his notes on Pinguicula (butterwort) to Thiselton-Dyer (see letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 28 [June 1874] and n. 4). Lychnis viscosa is a synonym of Silene viscaria (sticky catchfly or clammy campion); the sticky fluid is excreted from leaf nodes on the stem.
6
In his letter of 26 June 1874, CD had asked Thiselton-Dyer whether they had any species of Utricularia (bladderwort) at Kew.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9526,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9526