RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1874.12.25-26. Trinidad U. montana. CUL-DAR59.1.120. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 10.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR 54-61 contain material for Darwin's book Insectivorous plants (1875).

Utricularia is a genus of carnivorous plants known as bladderworts. These notes are for Darwin, C. R. 1875. Insectivorous plants. London: John Murray. (F1217)

"The social breadth of the network that Darwin drew on in his work on insectivorous plants was remarkable. The aristocratic horticulturist Dorothy Nevill hugely admired Darwin and was always eager to help by sending specimens from her well-stocked garden. ...[She] supplied Darwin with a specimen of Utricularia montana to work on. At first, Darwin mistook the empty stem tubers for bladders; when he found that the real bladders, which were very small and transparent and on the roots, captured prey, he exclaimed: 'I have hardly ever enjoyed a day more in my life than this day's work' (letter to D. F. Nevill, 18 September [1874]). Francis's new wife, Amy, drew the plant (letter to Francis Darwin, [17 September 1874])…Utricularia montana is an epiphytic species of bladderwort, native to the Antilles and northern South America. [It] is a synonym of U. alpina." Correspondence vol. 22, pp. xxviii, 447.

[120]

Dec. 25 /74 Trinidad U. montana Dried spec. from Kew

6 Bladders 1 [sketch] — object like this a flask formed of concave-cells.

probably a nematode 2 apparently a long very long-worm-shaped animal

3 with some object, possibly an alga.

6 Bladder from New Grenada plant — doubtfully whether any prey but I did not open all.

(The Trinidad plant grew amongst mosses & evidently as epiphyte) (The New Grenada plant seemed to have grown in muddy earth.—)

There were interesting unicellular alga, & one inch

Algæ within unicellular

Perhaps bladder largely serve as receptacle for water

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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