[1 recto]

DAR210.12

Lists of MSS of Bank in box

W.E.DARWIN

XVIII

[2 recto]

MSS in box at [Basset]

Marked MSS

Scraps used in 2d edition of origin (must be opened & [illeg])

____

Original M.S.S autograph

Cross & Self fertil. plants

____

Do not autograph

action of carbonate of lime in roots of plants

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First sketch of origin with Basset

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all MSS & tables about Common & [large] genera presenting most varieties

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Notes about children - at Basset

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Different forms of flowers on the same plants. Used scraps & original notes

5 rough white portfoilios

[envelope]

XVII

Letters from Abbot of the "Index"

[ ] to [ ] [ ] £20 from Fathers & me.

[4 recto]

[On 'The Index Association' letterhead]

Jan. 19, 1876.

Mr. W.E. Darwin, Basset, Southampton, England

My dear Sir,

I was greatly surprised and delighted by the evidence of such sympathy and goodwill on the part of yourself and your world famous father, as was furnished by your letter of Dec. 20.

How can I thank you warmly enough for such spontaneous generosity, transmitted in terms which went straight to my heart? That a gentleman whom I so reverence and love as your father should desire in this way to unite with his son in sending cheer and courage to me who has so many discouragements and difficulties to battle with, commands a gratitude I really know not how to express without seeming perhaps too demonstrative for our modern nil admirari manness; but I cannot disguise the exultation and pleasure I feel in the thought that Charles Darwin and his son should be moved of their own accord to do so kind a thing to my struggling little Index. Nobody will ever know

[letter of Dec. 20 can be found in CCD23:493]

[5 verso]

what it has cost me, or how near to my heart lay the plans I had to sacrifice in order to establish it; but also, nobody will ever know what heart-felt happiness has come to me from from such sympathy in my work as you now show. Take my poor words, and guess the rest.

The cheque for £20. realized $109.20 receipt of which I hereby acknowledge. As you and your father are so kind as to ask me to use this money in any way I think best for the Index, I will devote it to the "Paid contributors' Fund," for which I have been obliged to ask no appropriations for a long time with recent exception. This money, therefore, will not be turned into the general treasury, or acknowledged in our weekly "Cash Receipts," but deposited in this fund, for the use of which I render a special report to the directors once a year. If I made it pay for the share of stock, it would go to the Treasurer at once, and be beyond my control; whereas now I can use it for literary purposes without asking an appropriation. All I have had for these purposes has for two or three years come in a similar way – not much, at that. But this is most opportune, I do assure you, and will greatly aid me. The stock alas, would do you no good, it is not even "fancy" stock! Please give to Mr. Darwin my most grateful thanks, and believe me, yours with a full heart,

Francis E. Abbot.