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The Garden and the Field.

LETTER FROM MR. DARWIN.

The author of the several communications on the "Orange-destroying Moths," published lately in our columns, received by the last English mail the following letter, which from so eminent an authority must be deemed conclusive:—

Dear Sir, — I am much obliged to you for your articles on moths sucking oranges, on account of statements made by me that moths penetrate and suck the nectaries of orchids which never secrete nectar.

I have stated, on the authority of Mr. Trimen (in Annals and Mag. of Nat. History, September, 1869) that in South Africa "moths and butterflies do much injury to peaches and plums by penetrating the skin in parts which have not been in the least broken." I presume that your entomological opponent will allow that Mr. R. Trimen, the author of a grand work on the Lepidoptera of South Africa, is a competent witness.

Yours faithfully,

CHAS. DARWIN.

Down, Beckenham, Kent, August 22, 1875.