on the subject; also Letter
701 in the present volume.) I am so glad that you are able to occupy
yourself a little with flowers: I am sure it is most wise in you, for
your own sake and children's sakes.

Some little time ago Delpino wrote to me praising the Swedish book on
the fertilisation of plants; as my son George can read a little Swedish,
I should like to have it back for a time, just to hear a little what it
is about, if you would be so kind as to return it by book-post.
(704/3. Severin Axell, "Om anordningarna for de Fanerogama Vaxternas
Befruktning," Stockholm, 1869.)

I am going steadily on with my experiments on the comparative growth
of crossed and self-fertilised plants, and am now coming to some very
curious anomalies and some interesting results. I forget whether I
showed you any of them when you were here for a few hours. You ought
to see them, as they explain at a glance why Nature has taken such
extraordinary pains to ensure frequent crosses between distinct
individuals.

If in the course of the summer you should feel any inclination to come
here for a day or two, I hope that you will propose to do so, for we
should be delighted to see you...

LETTER 705. TO ASA GRAY. Down, December 7th, 1870.

I have been very glad to receive your letter this morning. I have for
some time been wishing to write to you, but have been half worked to
death in correcting my uncouth English for my new book. (705/1.
"Descent of Man.") I have been glad to hear of your cases appearing like
incipient dimorphism. I believe that they are due to mere variability,
and have no significance. I found a good instance in Nolana prostrata,
and experimented on it, but the forms did not differ in fertility. So it
was with Amsinckia, of which you told me. I have long thought that such
variations afforded the basis for the development of dimorphism. I was
not aware of such cases in Phlox, but have often admired the arrangement
of the anthers, causing them to be all raked by an inserted proboscis. I
am glad also to hear of your curious case of variability in ovules, etc.

I said that I had been wishing to write to you, and this was about your
Drosera, which after many fluctuations between life and death, at last
made a shoot which I could observe. The case is rather interesting; but
I must first remind you that the filament of Dionoea is not sensitive
to very light prolonged pressure, or to nitrogenous matter, but is
exquisitely sens