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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Mary Treat   22 June 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

June 22nd 74

My dear Madam

I am very much obliged for your extremely interesting letter, & I am glad to hear that you are studying Dionæa in so earnest a manner1   My observations on cultivated plants are now complete, and I shall publish them in six or nine months; though they will be of little value compared with those made on the plant in its own country. As you kindly offer me information, I should very much like to hear about one point. Dr Canby says that the same leaf will catch 2 or 3 insects successively. Now I find with cultivated plants that a leaf which has once caught a good sized insect, though it will open & remain so for a considerable time, has so little power of movement that it most rarely is able to catch a second insect or to close over any object. I should very much like to be able to say, what the truth is on this head.2

I remain dear Madam with my best thanks | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

William Marriott Canby of Wilmington, Delaware, had sent this observation on Dionaea (Venus fly trap) in response to a query from CD, who had mistakenly believed the plants were native there; Dionaea is native to the area around Wilmington, North Carolina (see Correspondence vol. 21, letter from W. M. Canby, 1 February 1873). CD cited information on this point from both Treat and Canby in Insectivorous plants, pp. 310–11; the book was published in July 1875 (Correspondence vol. 23, Appendix II).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.

Summary

Will soon publish on insectivorous plants; asks for a particular observation on Dionaea.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9505
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Davis/Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Treat
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Amy Nagashima (private collection)
Physical description
LS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9505,” accessed on 1 June 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9505.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

letter