384 BOTANY [Chap. XI 



Letter 704 Swedish book ] on the fertilisation of plants ; as my son 

 George can read a little Swedish, I should like to have ;it 

 back for a time, just to hear a little what it is about, if you 

 would be so kind as to return it by book-post. 



I am going steadily on with my experiments on the 

 comparative growth of crossed and self-fertilised plants, and 

 am now coming to some very curious anomalies and some 

 interesting results. I forget whether I showed you any of 

 them when you were here for a few hours. You ought to 

 see them, as they explain at a glance why Nature has taken 

 such extraordinary pains to ensure frequent crosses between 

 distinct individuals. 



If in the course of the summer you should feel any in- 

 clination to come here for a day or two, I hope that you will 

 propose to do so, for we should be delighted to see you. . . . 



Letter 705 T ° AsE Gm ^ 



Down. Dec. 7th, 1870. 



I have been very glad to receive your letter this morning. 

 I have for some time been wishing to write to you, but have 

 been half worked to death in correcting my uncouth English 

 for my new book. 2 I have been glad to hear of your cases 

 appearing like incipient dimorphism. I believe that they are 

 due to mere variability, and have no significance. I found a 

 good instance in Nolana prostrata, and experimented on it, 

 but the forms did not differ in fertility. So it was with 

 Amsinckia, of which you told me. I have long thought that 

 such variations afforded the basis for the development of 

 dimorphism. I was not aware of such cases in Phlox, but 

 have often admired the arrangement of the anthers, causing 

 them to be all raked by an inserted proboscis. I am glad 

 also to hear of your curious case of variability in ovules, etc. 



I said that I had been wishing to write to you, and this was 

 about your Drosera, which after many fluctuations between life 

 and death, at last made a shoot which I could observe. The 

 case is rather interesting ; but I must first remind you that 

 the filament of Dion(va % is not sensitive to very light prolonged 



1 Severin Axell, Om anordningarna for de Fa?ierogama Vaxternas 

 Befruktning, Stockholm, 1869. 



2 Descent of Man. > 



3 In another connection the following reference to Dioncea is of some 

 interest : " I am sure I never heard of Curtis's observations on 



