288 BOTANY [CHAP. X 



Letter 615 lateral main bundles, where I imagine two short stamens have 

 aborted, but I suppose there is some valid objection against 

 this notion. The course of the side vessels in the sepals is 

 curious, just like my difficulty in Habenaria^ I am surprised 

 at the four vessels in the ovarium. Can this indicate four 

 confluent pistils ? anyhow, they are in the right alternating 

 position. The nectary within the base of the shorter stamens 

 seems to cause the end sepals apparently, but not really, to 

 arise beneath the lateral sepals. 



I think you will understand my diagrams in five minutes, 

 so forgive me for bothering you. My writing this to you 

 reminds me of a letter which I received yesterday from 

 Claparede, who helped the French translatress 2 of the Origin, 

 and he tells me he had difficulty in preventing her (who never 

 looked at a bee's cell) from altering my whole description, 

 because she affirmed that an hexagonal prism must have an 

 hexagonal base ! Almost everywhere in the Origin, when 

 I express great doubt, she appends a note explaining the 

 difficulty, or saying that there is none whatever ! ! 3 It is 

 really curious to know what conceited people there are in the 

 world (people, for instance, after looking at one Cruciferous 

 flower, explain their homologies). 



This is a nice, but most barren country, and I can find 

 nothing to look at. Even the brooks and ponds produce 

 nothing. The country is like Patagonia. My wife is almost 

 well, thank God, and Leonard is wonderfully improved. . . . 

 Good God, what an illness scarlet fever is ! The doctor feared 

 rheumatic fever for my wife, but she does not know her risk. 

 It is now all over. 



Letter 616 To J. D. Hooker. 



Cliff Cottage, Bournemouth, Thursday Evening [Sept. i8th, 1862]. 



Thanks for your pleasant note, which told me much news, 

 and upon the whole good, of yourselves. You will be awfully 

 busy for a time, but I write now to say that if you think it 

 really worth while to send me a few Dielytra> or other Fumari- 

 aceous plant (which I have already tried in vain to find here) 

 in a little tin box, I will try and trace the vessels ; but please 



1 See Letter 605. 



2 The late Mile. Royer. 



3 See Life and Letter s^ II., p. 387 



