LITERARY WORK IN DEVONSHIRE. 301 



P. H. Gosse to C. Darwin. 



" Sandhurst, June 4, 1863. 



" My dear Sir, 



" I am exceedingly obliged for your kind and 

 "full reply. Will the following additional facts throw 

 " any light on the matter ? 



"The four flowers of Stanhopea oculata became 

 " thoroughly withered and flaccid by 1st inst, the 4th 

 " day after opening ; yet I allowed them to remain till 

 "this morning, when I cut off the raceme just before I 

 " received your letter. As one of the germens (and this 

 " one of those that I had tried to impregnate) came away 

 "with a touch, I took it as certain that no impregnation 

 " had taken place ; and so threw the whole on the rubbish 

 "heap without further examination. But, on reading 

 " your remarks, I thought I would examine them again ; 

 " chiefly to see if, by piercing the stigmatic surface, which 

 "had been so perfectly dry, I could find any viscosity 

 " within. Looking first at one of those to which I had 

 " affixed the pollen masses by means of their viscid disk, 

 " I was surprised to see they were half imbedded in a 

 "mass of viscous fluid. The other which I had treated 

 " was in precisely the same condition ; the viscum having 

 " exuded copiously, and oozing in a great globule, when 

 " I used pressure with my thumb and finger lower down 

 " the column. Let this, then, be fact the first, that though 

 "no viscum be visible at first on the stigma, it issues 

 " copiously after the flower has faded, from the interior, 

 " at the extreme point of the rostellum. 



" But secondly : A day or two after my attempt at 

 " impregnation (which affected only two of the four 

 " flowers), I was surprised to see the pollinia of one of the 

 " untouched flowers adhering to the point of one of the 



