18701882] JAGER 355 



colours may be as unimportant to them as those of a gall, Letter 265 

 or, indeed, as the colour of an amethyst or ruby is to these 

 gems. Some thirty years ago I began to investigate the 

 little purple flowers in the centre of the umbels of the carrot. 

 I suppose my memory is wrong, but it tells me that these 

 flowers are female, and I think that I once got a seed from 

 one of them ; but my memory may be quite wrong. I hope 

 that you will continue your interesting researches. 



To G. Jager. Letter 266 



Down, Feb. 3rd, 1875. 



I received this morning a copy of your work Contra 

 Wigand? either from yourself or from your publisher, and 

 I am greatly obliged for it. I had, however, before bought 

 a copy, and have sent the new one to our best library, that 

 of the Royal Society. As I am a very poor german scholar, 

 I have as yet read only about forty pages ; but these have 

 interested me in the highest degree. Your remarks on fixed 

 and variable species deserve the greatest attention ; but I am 

 not at present quite convinced that there are such independent 

 of the conditions to which they are subjected. I think you 

 have done great service to the principle of evolution, which 

 we both support, by publishing this work. I am the more 

 glad to read it as I had not time to read Wigand's great and 

 tedious volume. 



To Chauncey Wright. Letter 267 



Down, March I3th, 1875. 



I write to-day so that there shall be no delay this time in 

 thanking you for your interesting and long letter received 

 this morning. I am sure that you will excuse brevity when 

 1 tell you that I am half-killing myself in trying to get a 

 book 2 ready for the press. I quite agree with what you say 

 about advantages of various degrees of importance being 

 co-selected, 3 and aided by the effects of use, etc. The subject 



1 Jager's In Sachen Dar-wins insbesondcre contra Wigand (Stuttgart, 

 1874) is directed against A. Wigand's Der Darwinismus ttnd die 

 Nalurforschung New tons und Cuviers (Brunswick, 1874). 



The MS. of Insectivorous Plants was got ready for press in March, 

 1875. Darwin seems to have been more than usually oppressed by 

 the work. 



3 Mr. Chauncey Wright wrote (Feb. 24th, 1875) : "The inquiry as to 

 which of several real uses is the one through which Natural Selection 



