To J. H. Balfour   14 November 1840

My dear Sir,

I have only just got your letter of the 4 ^th – having been absent from home –

Without seeing the specimen I hardly dare venture a remark – but it appears to me to be quite different from anything I ever saw - I cannot understand on what ground it is considered to be allied to Pothos, or Peperomia or Typha – but I presume it is supposed to be a spadix of some plant – But why so? In short I dare not offer a conjecture which would seem to be set at nought by fig. -2- but which from fig. 1. above I might have

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that the specimen is part of a stem and not of a spadix – Can you fancy that the lower portion is only the central part of the stem perhaps a cavity filled up whilst the upper portions form 3 points with the outer parts entire. But pray don’t quote these obscure conjectures-

Y ^rs very truly | J S Henslow