294 'CROSS- AND SELF-FERTILISATION.' [^77- 



C. Darwin to W, Thiselton Dyer, 



Down, February 16, 1877. 



Dear Dyer, — I must tell you how greatly I am pleased 

 and honoured by your article in ' Nature/ which I have just 

 read. You are an adept in saying what will please an author, 

 not that I suppose you wrote with this express intention. 

 I should be very well contented to deserve a fraction of your 

 praise. I have also been much interested, and this is better 

 than mere pleasure, by your argument about the separation 

 of the sexes. I dare say that I am wrong, and will hereafter 

 consider what you say more carefully : but at present I can- 

 not drive out of my head that the sexes must have originated 

 from two individuals, slightly different, which conjugated. 

 But I am aware that some cases of conjugation are opposed 

 to any such views. 



With hearty thanks, 



Yours sincerely, 

 Charles Darwin. 



