56 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANBS 1876- 



From G. Darwin, Esq. 



Down, Beokenham, Kent : August 9. 



My dear Eomanes, — I have read your two articles 

 in ' Nature,' and nothing can be clearer or more inte- 

 resting, though I had gathered your conclusions 

 clearly from your other papers. It seems to me that 

 unless you can show that your muslin (in your 

 simile) is rather coarse, the transmission may be con- 

 sidered as passing in any direction from cell or unit 

 of structure to cell or unit ; and in this case the 

 transmission would be as in Dionsea, but more 

 easily effected in certain lines or directions than in 

 others. It is splendid work, and I hope you are 

 getting on well in all respects. The Mr. Lawless to 

 whom you refer is the Hon. Miss Lawless, as I know, 

 for she sent me a very good manuscript about the 

 fertilisation of plants, which I have recommended 

 her to send to ' Nature.' 



As for myself, Prank and I have been working 

 like slaves on the bloom on plants, with very poor 

 success ; as usual, almost everything goes differently 

 from what I had anticipated. But I have been abso- 

 lutely delighted at two things : Cohn, of Breslau, has 

 seen all the phenomena described by Frank in 

 Dipsacus, and thinks it a very remarkable discovery, 

 and is going to work with all reagents on the fila- 

 ments as Frank did, but no doubt he will know much 

 better how to do it. He wiU not pronounce whether 

 the filaments are some colloid substance or living 

 protoplasm ; I think he rather leans to latter, and he 



