LITERARY WORK IN DEVOXSHIRE. 303 



•' C. Darwin to P. H. Gosse. 



"Down, June 5, 1863. 



" My dear Sir, 



" If you would prove the truth of your hypo- 

 " thesis, it would be extremely curious and quite new. 

 " It certainly seems very suspicious you having found 

 "the pollinium attached to the horns of the labellum so 

 " often. I am prepared to believe anything of these 

 "wonderful productions. But if I were in your place, I 

 " would wait till I could observe another spike, and then 

 " you would, I have no doubt, definitely prove the case. 

 "Why I should act so is because I have so often noticed 

 "the pollinia removed in an unexpected manner. Dr. 

 " Hooker published in PJiil. Transactions that Listera 

 "ejected its pollinia to a distance, which is an entire 

 "mistake. The conjecture (and it was founded on 

 " nothing but despair) occurred to me that the vibrating 

 " labellum in Acropera might remove the pollinia ; but 

 " Dr. Hooker tried on a living plant and failed to make 

 " it act. 



" Nevertheless your case may prove quite true ; the 

 " dried labellum seems very thin, as if it had been flexible. 

 " It is really a very curious case. I have some Stan- 

 " hopes in my stove (I know not what species), but I fear 

 " they will not flower this summer : should they do so, I 

 "will observe them and communicate the result to you. 

 "If you thought fit to communicate your facts now to 

 " any periodical, it might induce others to observe ; but 

 " many persons are such bad observers that I doubt 

 " whether you would profit by it. 



" I would suggest to you to get to know (if you do 

 " not already do so) the appearance of the viscid matter 

 "from the stigma which abounds with isolated elonirated 



