WCP5536

[1]

Peradenia, Ceylon

15 Nov 1864

Dear Hooker,

I omitted to answer one of the enquiries in your last letter, when I wrote to you a fortnight ago — I have neither the Cephaëlis nor the Calumba¹ plant growing in the garden, and should be very glad to try both of them, as Mr Hanbury² recommends —

Should you see Mr Hanbury will you tell him that I have five plants of the [2] Physostigma venenatum [venenosum], raised from seeds he sent me, growing vigorously in the open ground: — and that the largest plant I have of Myroxylon Pareira [pereirae], also raised from seed received from him, has a trunk nine inches in circumference close to the ground and the largest of the several branches, into which it divides at about a foot from the ground, is 11 ½ feet long — I hope Mr. Hanbury will always think [3] of me when he has tropical seeds to spare.

I have been obliged to plant out[?] very[?] little[?] spotted plants of Begonia malabarica, as they were so attacked with mould on the leaves: they are recovering now. I look with great interest to their flowering, for if they show no sign of being crossed (from the flower resembling the ordinary form of the plant) I shall really begin to think that there may be some subtle recondite influence exercised without any physical intermixture — and it would [4]³ be analogous to what Wallace observed with regard to one group of butterflies simulating another in one or more of its species.

I am always | Your affectionate | G. H. K. Thwaites [signature]

Both Natalensis[?], & Malabarica[?] come up spotted when young & lose it afterwards⁴