434 BOTANY [Chap. XI 



Letter 764 Oxalis corniculata (and seeds if possible). I should think 

 so common a weed was never asked for before, — and what 

 a poor return for the hundreds of plants which I have 

 received from Kew ! I hope that I have not bothered you 

 by writing so long a note, and I did not intend to do so. 



If Asa Gray has returned with you, please give him my 

 kindest remembrances. 



Letter 765 To J. D. Hooker. 



Oct. 22nd, 1881. 

 I am investigating the action of carbonate of ammonia 

 on chlorophyll, 1 which makes me want the plants in my list. 

 I have incidentally observed one point in EupJwrbia, which 

 has astonished me — viz. that in the fine fibrous roots of 

 EupJiorbia, the alternate rows of cells in their roots must 

 differ physiologically, though not in external appearance, as 

 their contents after the action of carbonate of ammonia differ 

 most conspicuously. . . . 



Wiesner of Vienna has just published a book 2 vivisecting 

 me in the most courteous, but awful manner, about the 

 " Power of Movement in Plants." Thank heaven, he admits 

 almost all my facts, after re-trying all my experiments ; but 

 gives widely different interpretation of the facts. I think he 

 proves me wrong in several cases, but I am convinced that 

 he is utterly erroneous and fanciful in other explanations. 

 No man was ever vivisected in so sweet a manner before, 

 as I am in this book. 



1 " The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on Chlorophyll Bodies." 

 Linn. Soc. Journ., XIX., p. 262, 1882. 



2 See Letter 763, note 1. 



