Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   30 [September 1874]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

30th

My dear H.

Your magnificent present of Aldrovanda has arrived quite safe.2 I have enjoyed greatly a good look at the shut leaves, one of which I cut open. It is an aquatic Dionæa, which has acquired some structures identical with those of Utricularia!3

If the leaves open, & I can transfer them open under the microscope I will try some experiments, for mortal man cannot resist the tempation.— If I cannot transfer, I will do nothing, for otherwise it wd require hundreds of leaves.—

You are a good man to give me such pleasure

Yours affect | C. Darwin

Pray thank Oliver very much for his paper; they seem marvellous little bladders & unlike those which I have examined.4

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 29 September 1874.
3
CD described the waterwheel plant, Aldrovanda vesiculosa, as a ‘miniature aquatic Dionaea’, with projections resembling the bladders of Utricularia (bladderwort), in Insectivorous plants, pp. 321 and 324.
4
Daniel Oliver’s paper on Utricularia described the bladders in U. jamesoniana (Oliver 1859, pp 169–70). See letter from J. D. Hooker, 23 September 1874 and n. 2.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9664,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9664