. 62.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 633 



sissippi to St. Paul and St. Anthony, etc., and then 

 home by rail, having been twelve busy weeks away. 



Well, we are longing to do it again, and more! 

 But I am settling down to my work as well as I may, 

 well content with the summer's holiday. 



December 2, 1872. 



Well, it is wonderful, your finding the nervous sys- 

 tem of Dionaea ! ! ! Pray take your time next spring, 

 and do up both Drosera and Dionaea. I will endeavor 

 next spring to get hold of Drosera filiformis and make 

 the observations. I will also do better, by sending 

 your note on to Mr. Canby, who lives near its habitat, 

 and has done something already in such observations. 



As to coiling of tendril. I think your idea is that 

 in the coiling of a fixed tendril, one coil has its con- 

 cave side the opposite of the part that has coiled the 

 other way. 



Now take a piece of tape say a span long ; black 

 one side, let some one hold the two ends while you 

 twist in the middle. The two halves are coiled in 

 opposite directions, just as a tendril which has caught 

 does. The same color will be on the outside of the 

 coil all the length. 



Blacken with a stroke of paint a line along the 

 whole length of a caught tendril. On straightening 

 it out the black will be all on one side. 



I have not had time to follow it up, and need not, 

 since you are sure to do it. But I think it clear that 

 one and the same side is concave, that is, the relatively 

 shortened side, the whole length of the caught tendril. 

 Do not you ? 



Mrs. Gray is absent while I write, or she would add 

 her best regards and best wishes to my own for a 

 happy New Year to you all. 



