ALS signed “Ch. Darwin,” two pages on two adjoining sheets, 5 x 7.75, Down, Beckenham, Kent letterhead, September 7, [1874]. Handwritten letter to British architect William Cecil Marshall, regarding his observations on Pinguicula, commonly known as butterwort, a genus of carnivorous flowering plants. In full: "I am very grateful to you. Your observations are excellent, & are put most clearly & will be very useful to me. I have picked off 16 seeds from this lot! The plant is certainly to a certain extent graninivorous also somewhat graminivorous, though mainly insectivorous. The rain, I know washes off the secretion & with it captured insects (& as you say seeds), which are retained by the incurved edges, which then become more incurved. It is a pretty experiment to put a row of flies or cabbage seeds on one margin of a flat leaf & see how the edge of the side curls over in from 12 to 24 hours." In fine condition.
Recorded by the Darwin Correspondence Project as Letter no. 9627F.
Darwin made extensive studies of carnivorous plants, publishing a book on the subject—simply entitled Insectivorous Plants—in 1875. Exploring the adaptations of carnivorous plants through the lens of natural selection, the book details Darwin’s experiments with various species, examining how they capture and digest prey, often using specialized trap mechanisms or sticky secretions. He tested their responsiveness using substances like meat, glass, and hair, discovering that only the movement of animal prey would trigger a reaction—an energy-conserving evolutionary trait. Illustrated by Darwin and his sons George and Francis, the book was part of his broader effort to demonstrate the power of natural selection. It was initially printed in 3,000 copies, translated into several languages, and later republished in 1888, posthumously edited and annotated by Francis Darwin.
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