256 BOTANY [Chap. X 



Letter 587 genus, a shrub, and Edtuardsia (is latter Papilionaceous ?). 

 Now what I want to know is whether any of these have 

 flowers as small as clover ; for if they have large flowers they 

 may be visited by humble-bees, which I think I remember 

 do exist in N. Zealand ; and which humble-bees would not 

 visit the smaller clover. Even the very minute little yellow 

 clover in England has every flower visited and revisited by 

 hive-bees, as I know by experience. Would it not be a 

 curious case of correlation if it could be shown to be probable 

 that herbaceous and small Leguminosae do not exist because 

 when [their] seeds [are] washed ashore (! ! !) no small bees 

 exist there. Though this latter fact must be ascertained. 

 I may not prove anything, but does it not seem odd that so 

 many quite independent facts, or rather statements, should 

 point all in one direction, viz., that bees are necessary to 

 the fertilisation of Papilionaceous flowers ? 



Letter 588 To John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). 



Sunday [1859]. 



Do you remember calling my attention to certain flowers 

 in the truss of Pelargoniums not being true, or not having 

 the dark shade on the two upper petals ? I believe it was 

 Lady Lubbock's observation. I find, as I expected, it is 

 always the central or sub-central flower ; but what is far more 

 curious, the nectary, which is blended with the peduncle of 

 the flowers, gradually lessens and quite disappears, 1 as the 

 dark shade on the two upper petals disappears. Compare 

 the stalk in the two enclosed parcels, in each of which there 

 is a perfect flower. 



Now, if your gardener will not be outrageous, do look over 

 your geraniums and send me a few trusses, if you can find 

 any, having the flowers without the marks, sending me some 

 perfect flowers on same truss. The case seems to me rather 

 a pretty one of correlation of growth ; for the calyx also 

 becomes slightly modified in the flowers without marks. 



Letter 589 To Maxwell Masters. 



Down, April 7th [i860]. 



I hope that you will excuse the liberty which I take in 

 writing to you and begging a favour. 1 have been very much 



1 This fact is mentioned in Maxwell Masters' Vegetable Teratology 

 (Ray Society's Publications), 1869, p. 221. 



