i868-iS8i] ERASMUS DARWIN 423 



delighted to hear, and with surprise, that you care about old Letter 754 

 Erasmus D. God only knows what I shall make of his life 

 it is such new kind of work to me. 1 



Thanks for case of sleeping Crotalaria new to me. I 

 quite agree to every word you say about Ball's lecture 2 it 

 is, as you say, like Sir W. Thomson's meteorite. 3 It is really 

 a pity ; it is enough to make Geographical Distribution 

 ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Frank will be interested 

 about the Auriculas 4 ; I never attended to this plant, for 

 the powder did [not] seem to me like true " bloom." This 

 subject, however, for the present only, has gone to the dogs 

 with me. 



I am sorry to hear of such a struggle for existence at Kew ; 

 but I have often wondered how it is that you are all not 

 killed outright. 



I can most fully sympathise with you in your admiration 

 of your little girl. There is nothing so charming in this 

 world, and we all in this house humbly adore our grandchild, 

 and think his little pimple of a nose quite beautiful. 



To G. Bentham. Letter 755 



Down, Feb. i6th, 1880. 



I have had real pleasure in signing Dyer's certificate. 5 It 

 was very kind in you to write to me about the Orchideae, for 

 it has pleased me to an extreme degree that I could have 

 been of the least use to you about the nature of the parts. 

 They are wonderful creatures, these orchids, and I sometimes 

 think with a glow of pleasure, when I remember making out 

 some little point in their method of fertilisation. 6 With 

 respect to terms, no doubt you will be able to improve them 



1 Erasmus Darwin, By Ernst Krause. Translated from the German 

 by W. S. Dallas : with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin. 

 London, 1879. See Life and Letters, III., pp. 218-20. 



2 " On the Origin of the Flora of the European Alps," Geogr. Soc. 

 Proc.j Vol. I., 1879, p. 564. See Letter 395, Vol. II. 



3 In 1871 Lord Kelvin (Presidential Address Brit. Assoc.) suggested 

 that meteorites, " the moss-grown fragments from the ruins of another 

 world," might have introduced life to our planet. 



4 See Francis Darwin, on the relation between "bloom" on leaves 

 and the distribution of the stomata. Linn. Soc.Journ., Vol. XXII., p. 1 14. 



5 As a candidate for the Royal Society. 



6 Published in Life and Letters, III., p. 288. 



