believe this is the
case with your plant. I hope it is so, for this plant can hardly require
a cross, being in function monoecious; so that dimorphism in such a case
would be a heavy blow to understanding its nature or good in all other
cases. I see few periodicals: when have you published on Clivia? I
suppose that you did not actually count the seeds in the hybrids in
comparison with those of the parent-forms; but this is almost necessary
after Gartner's observations. I very much hope you will make a good
series of comparative trials on the same plant of Tacsonia. (636/2. See
Scott in "Linn. Soc. Journal," VIII.) I have raised 700-800 seedlings
from cowslips, artificially fertilised with care; and they presented not
a hair's-breadth approach to oxlips. I have now seed in pots of cowslip
fertilised by pollen of primrose, and I hope they will grow; I have also
got fine seedlings from seed of wild oxlips; so I hope to make out the
case. You speak of difficulties on Natural Selection: there are indeed
plenty; if ever you have spare time (which is not likely, as I am sure
you must be a hard worker) I should be very glad to hear difficulties
from one who has observed so much as you have. The majority of
criticisms on the "Origin" are, in my opinion, not worth the paper they
are printed on. Sir C. Lyell is coming out with what, I expect, will
prove really good remarks. (636/3. Lyell's "Antiquity of Man" was
published in the spring of 1863. In the "Life and Letters," Volume III.,
pages 8, 11, Darwin's correspondence shows his deep disappointment at
what he thought Lyell's half-heartedness in regard to evolution. See
Letter 164, Volume I.) Pray do not think me intrusive; but if you
would like to have any book I have published, such as my "Journal of
Researches" or the "Origin," I should esteem it a compliment to be
allowed to send it. Will you permit me to suggest one experiment, which
I should much like to see tried, and which I now wish the more from
an extraordinary observation by Asa Gray on Gymnadenia tridentata (in
number just out of Silliman's N. American Journal) (636/4. In Gymnadenia
tridentata, according to Asa Gray, the anther opens in the bud, and the
pollen being somewhat coherent falls on the stigma and on the rostellum
which latter is penetrated by the pollen-tubes. "Fertilisation of
Orchids," Edition II., page 68. Asa Gray's papers are in "American
Journal of Science," Volume XXXIV., 1862, and XXXVI., 1863.); name