1 868 1881] VOCHTING 429 



I procured some time ago your Organbildung* etc., but it Letter 759 

 was too late for me to profit by it for my book, as I was 

 correcting the press. I read only parts, but my son Francis 

 read the whole with care and told me much about it, which 

 greatly interested me. I also read your article in the Bot. 

 Zeitung. My son began at once experimenting, to test your 

 views, and this very night will read a paper before the 

 Linnean Society on the roots of Rubus? and I think that 

 you will be pleased to find how well his conclusions agree 

 with yours. He will of course send you a copy of his paper 

 when it is printed. I have sent him your letter, which will 

 please him if he agrees with me ; for your letter has given me 

 real pleasure, and I did not at all know what the many great 

 physiologists of Germany, Switzerland, and Holland would 

 think of it [T/ie Power of Movement, etc.]. I was quite 

 sorry to read Sachs' views about root-forming matter, etc., 

 for I have an unbounded admiration for Sachs. In this 

 country we are dreadfully behind in Physiological Botany. 



To A. De Candolle. Letter 760 



Down, Jan. 24th, iSSi. 



It was extremely kind of you to write me so long and 

 valuable a letter, the whole of which deserves careful con- 

 sideration. I have been particularly pleased at what you say 

 about the new terms used, because I have often been annoyed 

 at the multitude of new terms lately invented in all branches 

 of Biology in Germany ; and I doubted much whether I was 

 not quite as great a sinner as those whom I have blamed. 

 When I read your remarks on the word " purpose ' in your 

 Phytographie, I vowed that I would not use it again ; but it is 

 not easy to cure oneself of a vicious habit. It is also difficult 

 for any one who tries to make out the use of a structure to 

 avoid the word purpose. I see that I have probably gone 

 beyond my depth in discussing plurifoliate and unifoliate 

 leaves ; but in such a case as that of Mimosa albida> where 



1 Organbildimg im Pflanzetireich, 1878. 



2 Francis Darwin, " The Theory of the Growth of Cuttings " (Linn. 

 Soc. Journ., XVIII.). [I take this opportunity of expressing my regret 

 that at p. 417, owing to neglect of part of Vochting's facts, I made a 

 criticism of his argument which cannot be upheld. F. D.]. 



