42O GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN/ [1855. 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray* 



Down, April 25th [1855.] 



MY DEAR SIR, I hope that you will remember that I had 

 the pleasure of being introduced to you at Kew. I want to 

 beg a great favour of you, for which I well know I can offer 

 no apology. But the favour will not, I think, cause you much 

 trouble, and will greatly oblige me. As I am no botanist, it 

 will seem so absurd to you my asking botanical questions ; 

 that I may premise that I have for several years been collect- 

 ing facts on " variation," and when I find that any general 

 remark seems to hold good amongst animals, I try to test 

 it in Plants. [Here follows a request for information on 

 American Alpine plants, and a suggestion as to publishing 

 on the subject.] I can assure you that I perceive how pre- 

 sumptuous it is in me, not a botanist, to make even the most 

 trifling suggestion to such a botanist as yourself ; but from 

 what I saw and have heard of you from our dear and kind 

 friend Hooker, I hope and think that you will forgive me, and 

 believe me, with much respect, 



Dear sir, yours very faithfully, 



CHARLES DARWIN. 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, June 8th [1855]. 



MY DEAR SIR, I thank you cordially for your remarkably 

 kind letter of the 226. ult., and for the extremely pleasant 

 and obliging manner in which you have taken my rather 

 troublesome questions. I can hardly tell you how much 

 your list of Alpine plants has interested me, and I can now 



* The well-known American Botanist. My father's friendship with Dr. 

 Gray began with the correspondence of which the present is the first letter. 

 An extract from a letter to Sir J. Hooker, 1857, shows that my father's 

 strong personal regard for Dr. Gray had an early origin : " I have been 

 glad to see A. Gray's letters ; there is always something in them that shows 

 that he is a very lovable man." 



