2/6 FERTILISATION [1865. 



C. Darwin to J. Traherne Moggridge* 



Down, October 13 [1865]. 



MY DEAR SIR, I am especially obliged to you for your 

 beautiful plates and letter-press ; for no single point in natural 

 history interests and perplexes me so much as the self-fertili- 

 sation f of the Bee-orchis. You have already thrown some 

 light on the subject, and your present observations promise 

 to throw more. 



I formed two conjectures : first, that some insect during 

 certain seasons might cross the plants, but I have almost 

 given up this ; nevertheless, pray have a look at the flowers 

 next season. Secondly, I conjectured that the Spider and 

 Bee-orchids might be a crossing and self-fertile form of the 

 same species. Accordingly I wrote some years ago to an 

 acquaintance, asking him to mark some Spider-orchids, and 

 observe whether they retained the same character ; but he 

 evidently thought the request as foolish as if I had asked him 

 to mark one of his cows with a ribbon, to see if it would turn 

 next spring into a horse. Now will you be so kind as to tie 

 a string round the stem of half-a-dozen Spider-orchids, and 

 when you leave Mentone dig them up, and I would try and 

 cultivate them and see if they kept constant ; but I should re- 

 quire to know in what sort of soil and situations they grow. It 

 would be indispensable to mark the plant so that there could be 

 no mistake about the individual. It is also just possible that 

 the same plant would throw up, at different seasons different 

 flower-scapes, and the marked plants would serve as evidence. 

 With many thanks, my dear sir, 



Yours sincerely, 



CH. DARWIN. 



* The late Mr. Moggridge, author thousand years, was his desire to 

 of ' Harvesting Ants and Trap-door see the extinction of the Bee- 

 Spiders,' ' Flora of Mentone,' &c. orchis, an end to which he be- 



t He once remarked to Dr. Nor- lieved its self-fertilising habit was 



man Moore that one of the things leading, 

 that made him wish to live a few 



