ET. 62.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 633 
sissippi to St. Paul and St. Anthony, ete., and then 
home by rail, having been twelve busy weeks away. 
Well, we are longing to do it again, and more! 
But I am settling down to my work as well as I may, 
well content with the summer’s holiday. 
December 2, 1872. 
Well, it is wonderful, your finding the nervous sys- 
tem of Dionza!!! Pray take your time next spring, 
and do up both Drosera and Dionza. I will endeavor 
next spring to get hold of Drosera filiformis and make 
the observations. I will also do better, by sending 
your note on to Mr. Canby, who lives near its habitat, 
and has done something already in such observations. 
As to coiling of tendril. I think your idea is that 
in the coiling of a fixed tendril, one coil has its con- 
cave side the opposite of the part that has coiled the 
other way. 
Now take a piece of tape say a span long; black 
one side, let some one hold the two ends while you 
twist in the middle. The two halves are coiled in 
opposite directions, just as a tendril which has caught 
does. The same color will be on the outside of the 
coil all the length. 
Blacken with a stroke of paint a line along the 
whole length of a caught tendril. On straightening 
it out the black will be all on one side. 
I have not had time to follow it up, and need not, 
since you are sure to do it. But I think it clear that 
one and the same side is concave, that is, the relatively 
shortened side, the whole length of the caught tendril. 
Do not you? 
Mrs. Gray is absent while I write, or she would add 
her best regards and best wishes to my own fora 
happy New Year to you all. 
