[page] 477

[…]

LETTER 1 MS 1

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Dec. 3d (1849)

Sir

I hope that you will excuse the liberty I take in addressing you. I am employed on a monograph on the Cirripedia, recent & fossil, for the Ray. Soc. I am very anxious to see as many specimens as possible. I have now at my house numerous specimens from Messrs Bowerbank, S. Wood, Buckman & James de C. Sowerby &c; & a number

[footnotes]

[page] 478

are on their way to me from Prof. Steenstrup of Copenhagen. Mr John Morris writes to me that you have a Pollicipes from the Chalk, & he thinks that you would perhaps be so kind as to entrust it to me for examination. If you are willing to confer so great a favour on me, I shall feel very much obliged; & in that case, might I keep your specimen for a few weeks, for I want to compare as many specimen as possible together, & I hope soon to have several more sent me.

If you send it, I shd think, if the specimen be not very heavy, registered by Post wd be the safest way, & I wd take the liberty of returning you the Postage— If by parcel, the direction shd be exactly as follows

C. Darwin Esq

 care of G. Snow

Nag's Head

 Borough

 London.

 

I hope that you will forgive my having taken the liberty to ask so great a favour. I beg to remain

Dear Sir

Your faithful servant

 Charles Darwin

Would you inform me if you know, from what part of the Chalk your specimen came?

 

Fitch replied during December that he did indeed possess such a specimen. He presumably offered to lend it to Darwin, but may have preferred sending it after Darwin had received and assembled those that he wished to compare. Darwin had been waiting for a large lot of specimens from Steenstrup. He told Hancock on Christmas that this had not as yet arrived, and it seems to have come only in late January." Darwin must have decided to go ahead with the comparison without the lot from Copenhagen. He accordingly wrote to Fitch requesting his specimen, as well as any other separate (i.e. single in contrast to co-embedded) valves, which he might be willing to lend, offering to pay the postage.

 

LETTER 2 MS IX

To Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Jan 6th (1850)

Dear Sir

If you will have now the kindness to lend me your Pollicipes, I shd be very much obliged. I have given up in despair the lot from Copenhagen; but I now have 40 or 50 specimens here. I hope that you will allow me to keep your specimen a week for I really shall hardly be able to compare all my specimens under this time.

If you have any separate valves & wd be pleased to entrust them to me, I shd be grateful for the assistance. I will immediately on receipt of the specimen acknowledge its arrival & return stamps for its registry &c.

I beg to remain

Dear Sir

Yours faithfully

 C. Darwin

Fitch immediately sent his co-embedded-valve specimens (see fig. 3), several single valves, and

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[page] 479

a note presumably on 8 January. In answer to Darwin's December question he replied that his specimens had come from the Upper Chalk (Belemnitella mucronata zone) of Norwich. Fitch in turn asked Darwin to identify these specimens but would not accept repayment of postage. Darwin was greatly impressed with these fossil specimens.

LETTER 3 MS VIII

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Jan 10th (1850)

My dear Sir

I write to thank you cordially for your very kind note & specimens. I have had just one look at them & they are incomparably the best specimens which I have as yet seen from any Secondary rock. But I grieve to say that one specimen has arrived broken; thank Heaven it is it is only one of the single valves, but a very fine one: (marginal note:) (it is a large flat valve (scutum) or lower lateral valve) it has come off the chalk & about one half is in very small fragments, which I hope to succeed in gumming together: a second has a piece of the chalk broken off, but the valve is not in the least injured. I have seldom been more vexed than on seeing this. I fear you will be always sorry that you sent (lent?) them me. I think they wd come back safer within a wooden box.

I can see by a glance that the specimen is a Scalpellum, allied to the S. (Xiphidium of Sowerby & Dixon) quadratum of the Bognor beds, but in some aspects (respects?) more allied to (the) a recent new species which I have called S. rutilum. I believe it is the Pollicipes maximum of J. Sowerby.

Should you object to my having your specimen drawn by Mr J. Sowerby, together with several others? Will you kindly inform me? I intend going to London on or about the 20th (but my plans are uncertain on account of my wifes expected confinement & wd take it up to London with me, if you grant your permission, get them drawn, if possible, whilst I remain in London; bring them home & send them to you.

I will not touch the chalk, & I promise (to) take every possible care of your specimens, which I look at as of extreme value; & I trust that there will be no accidents— I have had none as yet, except in the present unfortunate case, though I have had a great many recent & some fossil sent me. I really cannot tell you how grieved & sorry I have been that your kindness shd thus have been ill rewarded

Yours sincerely

 obliged

 C. Darwin

 

Fitch replied on the twelfth or possibly Sunday the thirteenth allaying Darwin's concern and even offered to provide a duplicate. He requested Darwin to refer to his specimens in his monograph, carefully to tag each one for future reference, and by silence consented to having them engraved, Darwin decided that instead of placing Fitch's pair of co-embedded valves with Scalpellum quadratum he would create an ancestral fossil species viz., Scalpellum fossula, for his important newly created recent species, viz., Scalpellum rutilum.

 

LETTER 4 MS XII

To Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Jan 15th (1850)

My dear Sir

I must send one line to thank you for the truly kind way you take the accident to your specimen. I have now mended it; there were 13 fragments, but they fit so well that with the head 18 inches or two feet off, the injury cannot be perceived, & the speci-

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[page] 480

[sketch]

men is as good as ever for Scientific purposes. I am very grateful for your offer, of a duplicate; but I must tell you that as soon as my monograph is completed, I shall give all my specimens to (the) Brit. Mus. Possibly the fossil species may be published by Palæntog(graphical) Soc.

Your specimens consist of 1st the Scalpellum fossula (as I intend to call it, if I find that it has been nowhere described) its affinities I have correctly given you. Your specimens (see fig. 3) contain all the valves except one or two: there is a large single (see fig. 4) (valve) unsymmetrically curved; this is, I believe, a right-hand anterior latera of (the) lower whorl, & correspond to the valve missing in your (two) specimens, but if so the species must have attained a great size. The only other specimen, I have seen, of S. fossula is a right hand broken scutum in Mr J. Sowerby's(specimen) collection from Norwich.

Secondly you have a Carina of the Scalpellum (Pollicipes) (maximum) sulcatum of Sowerby.

Thirdly there is a right-hand scutum of a Scalpellum (the one broken & repaired), probably the S. (Pollicipes) maximum of J. Sowerby.

Fourthly you have a pair of Terga of a Pollicipes, I believe new spec(ies).

I will attend to all your wishes about the specimens: you need not doubt my referring for my own sake (independently of gratitude) to your collection, as (it is important to mention the) place of deposit of (the) specimens described. How I wish I cd see a few more specimens even with two valves together: there is always a risk in describing separate valves of making several nominal species out of one. If you have any oddly shaped, curled valves they wd be very interesting to me; indeed the more I see the more likely I am to come to correct conclusions—I can generally now tell the position of a separate valve, even when the other valves are quite unknown: Judging from the Keel valve alone, I think that I have now before me five species of cirripedia from the Chalk & at least as many more from the Gualt. (sic). But I am troubling you with details. If I had plenty of specimens I might perhaps make out as many species from the other valves as from the Carina or Keel valve.

Pray believe me

Yours sincerely obliged

C. Darwin

I forgot to say, that in examining the Boxes sent, I see one has been crushed in the corner & that injury not produced by any jar, & therefore I hope that your specimens will go back quite safe in (a) wooden box.

 

Upon the completion of his research, Darwin had "three or four species [of Lepadidae] from the Gault; from five to eight in the Lower Chalk, and from nine to twelve species in the Upper Chalk . . . and of these nine to twelve, five have been found by one collector, Mr. Fitch." Responding to Darwin's request for more specimens, Fitch sent a second lot about January 19. Fitch pointed out that his collection was the fruit of twenty-years' work. The specimens arrived, once again in a damaged condition.

Darwin wrote concerning these matters to Bowerbank as well. His letter is inserted here to provide additional perspective on Darwin's work during January, 1850.

 

[To J. S. Bowerbank]

Down Farnborough Kent

Jan 19th. (18)50

My dear Sir

In accordance with your permission, I have cleared one of the large valves, which can be now drawn. The four little embedded pieces, now cleared & separated, consist of (1) a fragment of a scutum, (2) a perfect upper latus (3d) a perfect lower latus 4th a broken do. Your specimen is certainly now a hundred fold more instructive; and the 3 valves which were in their nearly proper position have not been in the least displaced. Many thanks for offer of sessile cirripedes, but I am not nearly ready for them yet. (Professor E.) Forbes wrote to me that he understood that you had some valves from the Gault of Pollicipes besides those sent to me;

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[page] 481

if you have & wd entrust them to me, I shd be particularly thankful, as I want to see as many as possible.

Mr Fitch has sent me some beautiful specimens for description.

I fully thought I had asked you in my former note, & if I did not it was an accidental omission which I am very sorry to say will entail another note on you. It is to ask whether you will permit me to have some of your specimens drawn by Mr J. Sowerby: I intend to have all the fossils if I get permission, which have any good characters, drawn. With respect to publication of the fossils, I have not yet thought: your mentioning the Palæont(ological) Soc(iety). makes me think whether my work wd suit them. I hope immediately to receive a lot of fossils from Copenhagen chalk, named by Beck (?) & Steenstrup; which will be very valuable for comparison with the British specimens. Will you give me your idea about (the) Palæont(ological) Soc(iety). I suppose even if you thought it would suit (them), I had better wait till I have done the fossil cirripedes as the whole (of the latter) will of course be only a small Part (of the monograph on the cirripedes).

Pray forgive this trouble (?) & believe me Yours very faithfully

 C. Darwin.

 

Four days later Darwin wrote again to Fitch.

 

LETTER 5 MS II

To Robert Fitch

Wednesday

(Jany 23 (1850)

My dear Sir

I write merely now to say I have received all your specimens & kind note. Many of the valves are quite new. Yours is incomparably the finest collection in the world of fossil Secondary Cirripedia. Two of your specimens, I feel grief & shame in saying are come broken slightly but can be perfectly repaired: a third is rather more injured but fortunately it was one embedded upside down & in that condition it is absolutely & utterly useless; it has now come off the Chalk & I hope can be repaired & will certainly even mutilated be far more useful that heretofore.

I will report hereafter in full to you

Yours

 C. Darwin

 

Fitch dispatched yet a third lot of specimens about Friday, the twenty-fifth of January, or perhaps Saturday, and these arrived without incident.

 

LETTER 6 MS VI

To: Robert Fitch

Monday Evening

(28 January 1850)

Down Farnborough Kent

My dear Sir,

All your specimens arrived quite safely. I have had to thank you so often, that I fear you will think it a mere form, when I say I do so most sincerely. I am in truth ashamed to think how much trouble you have had & how much expense in postage I have put you to & I wish you would permit me to return the stamps. Your last (i.e., third) lot have interested me, though not containing anything new, (though) yet there is one specimen far more valuable to me than a new species, convincing me that the conclusion at which I arrived viz. that P. maximus & sulcatus of Sowerby are only varieties, is correct. My work grows on me; by the same morning Post two new species from Mr Morris arrived; yet I have certainly broken the neck of the job. Of specimens in a state fit to be recognized (&) described & named, your collection contains.

I Scalpellum maximum of S. (J. intended) Sowerby

— var, sulcatum

— var. solidulum (cylindraceum intended]) with many valves (including nine carina)

I (I) Scalpellum fossula nov. spec.

III Pollicipes productus nov, spec.

IV Pollicipes fallax nov, spec.

V — siriatus nov. spec.

So your (monograph) collection has added 4 new species to my monograph.; & removed much difficulty regarding S. maximum & its vars. I have been much interested by hearing that your collection is (the) fruit of 20 years, which I will allude to in my work,

I am sorry to hear of your ill-health; I know full well what that is.

Yours sincerely

C. Darwin

P.S. I have opened my letter to say that I have been at work on your specimens, & (find) know from analogy that the single Keel-valve specimen of S. sulcatum; has a third lower side in the upper half entirely hidden in the chalk: your specimen is exteriorly more perfect than any I have seen, yet I cannot have it (engraved) drawn without I cd exhibit this lower side in (the) upper half: I am sure I cd clear chalk from it with safety on one side, as I have done with Mr Sowerby's specimens. At present the

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[page] 482

chief characteristic of your valve is hidden. I enclose (an) envelope directed to save your time: will (you) write (the) word "yes" or "no" on slip of paper & no more & I will act accordingly.

I am sorry to say that I have this morning heard from my Brother in London that his house is full & he cannot receive me next week from this cause & from my wifes confinement I fear I must put off going to London for a week more. I pledge my honour nothing but good reason shall delay me having your specimens drawn & returned. I really apologize for (the) length of this note.

Fitch returned the pre-addressed envelope straightaway with "yes," and thus must have reached Darwin about February 2. Darwin wrote the progress report for January as promised and indicated that he planned to go to London on Wednesday, presumably February 6, to have the specimens engraved.

LETTER 7 MS XI

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Feb 1st (1850)

Dear Sir

As this is the first of Feby I write to report progress. I have lost 5 days by my own unwellness & the illness of one of my children. On every other day, without exception I have worked 2 1/2 hours (which the Doctors only allow me) on fossil Cirripedia. I believe I have now about 200 specimens in the house & the labour of comparing so many valves (many of which I have to clear out of matrix & repair) is great. I have described (11 sp) eleven species in detail & next Wednesday I take up many specimens to be drawn. I suppose I have at least (8) 12 more species to describe, of which several belong to you. I cannot work quicker, but I pledge myself to go steadily on with the fossil pedunculate species till they are finished. Please to observe that when there are many valves each species requires 5 or 6 pages of description.

From the kindness of your notes, I do not believe you will object to my keeping your specimens somewhat longer—if I do not hear I shall understand I have your permission.

Yours faithfully

C. Darwin

I forgot before to say that all your specimens shall be returned named specifically & with names of valves.

 

Fitch wrote a letter about February 3 reassuring Darwin that he could keep the specimens longer and that he was dispatching yet a fourth lot. Darwin received the letter just after writing for permission to remove chalk from still another valve.

 

LETTER 8 MS II

To: Robert Fitch

(Feby 5 (18)50)

My dear Sir

Amongst the specimens first sent, there is one embedded with its back downwards, presenting a concavity upwards: it is in present state absolutely & [sketch] utterly useless, every character is hidden: if you like, I will soak it & clear chalk off. But do not say yes, without you would like it, for I have not the least idea what the valve is, it may be new or it may be old & nothing will ever be known about it in its present state, I have well exhibited the additional side to the carina, which you granted me permission to do, & it is now the best specimen which I have seen & I will have it figured.

I (was) have just made out a quite new beautiful & distinct species of Pollicipes out of the lot last sent. The species are very numerous for in Mr Flower of Croydon's small collection I have found two other new & distinct species of Scalpellum from Chalk.

Yours very faithfully

C. Darwin

Down Farnborough Kent

Tuesday

P.S. I have opened this note to thank you very sincerely for your renewed proof of your kindness in your letter just received.

 

Fitch's fourth lot of specimens arrived just as Darwin was leaving to have the others drawn by Sowerby.

 

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[page] 483

LETTER 9 MS X

To: Robert Fitch

Wednesday

(Feb. 6 (18)50)

My dear Sir

I am just starting to London & write one word to say your (4th lot of) specimens arrived—one cracked across; no other damage thank God—Some new things.

Yours with sincerest thanks

C. Darwin

 

Darwin left the specimens in London with the engraver Sowerby and returned home to Down

to complete the near dozen outstanding descriptions. About five weeks later, Sowerby had finished drawing half of this first set of specimens. Darwin planned to return to London towards the end of March to bring the remainder. In a second short report Darwin asked Fitch whether he could provide additional specimens.

 

LETTER 10 MS V

 

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

March 17th (18) 50

My dear Sir

I write only to say that I have now described all your specimens, & have merely to go over them a second time. I have heard from Mr Sowerby that about half are figured & I shall in a week or 10 days time take up the remainder to be figured. I think it is since I last wrote to you, that the Palaeontographical Society has agreed to publish my monograph on the fossil species. Your materials have indeed been of extreme value to me. I assure you deliberately that the length of time I have detained your specimens has not been caused by idleness.

I remain with thanks

Yours faithfully

C. Darwin

This scrawl obviously requires no answer.

P.S. I have opened my note especially to thank you for having sent me so many specimens: had it not been for these, I shd in the species last described by me (have) fallen into some great errors—I suppose with this weather you have not been collecting, but if you have lately procured even any fragments & do not grudge the trouble of sending me so very many parcels I have no doubt they wd aid me. It is certain that many valves remain to be found in (the) Chalk of Norwich.

 

Darwin may have been referring, for example, to Scalpellum maximum concerning which he confessed that he

"had far more difficulty . . . than with all the other fossil pedunculated cirripedes, Comparing ordinary specimens of the carina of Scalpellum maximum and var. sulcatum . .. I should certainly have considered them quite distinct, had not an examination of Mr. Fitch's fine collection from Norwich, together with several other specimens, shown me that there are intermediate forms which it is scarcely possible to class. (Furthermore) . . . in the same Norwich beds, from which Mr. Fitch obtained his fine series of carinae, there are scuta and terga, which undoubtedly belonged to the genus Scalpellum... but both the terga and scuta present a more remarkable range of variation than do even the carinae. In the case of the terga, at one extreme of the series, I did not even at first recognise the valve to be a tergum! yet the forms so blend together with very short intervals, that I cannot specifically separate them. ... In the case of the scuta there are three distinct forms in Mr. Fitch's collection, which I should certainly have considered as specifically distinct, had I not been led from studying the carinae and terga to believe that this species varies much."

 

Darwin returned to London in late March or early April as planned. He brought the remaining specimens to be drawn and picked up those which Sowerby had already completed. Sowerby then took many months more to bring his portion of the project to completion. Upon his return to Down, Darwin wrote to Fitch.

 

LETTER 11 MS VII

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Saturday

(30 March 1850)

My dear Sir

I send one line to say that I have got back some of your specimens safe & drawn, & taken all the others to Mr Sowerby. I am ready to go to press, & therefore you may rely on it, I shall urge Mr Sowerby on in his Drawings, but he has one longish job in Hand.

Mr Sowerby took the liberty, of clearing, a little bit of chalk away from your best specimen, which he ought not to have done, but he has improved the specimen. In one (quarter) corner of it, he has displayed a little Terebratula or Crania, which he says is a new species to him!

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[page] 484

I wish with all my heart that my M.S. was printed & done with, for I have become at best tired of the fossil species. This obviously requires no answer.

Yours sincerely & obliged

C. Darwin

 

Writing to Hancock in the latter half of March, Darwin reiterated that "ever since writing last to you (December 25, 1849) my two-hour-per-day work has been occupied with a tiresome set of fossils."

Following up Darwin's March 17 request for more specimens, Fitch sent a fifth lot of two more

about May 1.

 

LETTER 12 MS IV

 

To: Robert Fitch

May 5th (1850)

Down Farnborough Kent

My dear Sir

I write to acknowledge the safe receipt of your two specimens & to thank you for your constant & kind regard to my pursuits. The valves are new to your collection; but they are unfortunately valves on which specific names cannot possibly be founded.

Yours sincerely,

C. Darwin

 

Darwin meantime had finished his work with the fossil Lepadidae and on April 28 had begun working on the classification of the non-pedunculated cirripedes. On June 5 he presented the introduction to his Fossil Lepadidae to the Geological Society and wrote Hooker on the thirteenth that he was "at last . . . going to press with . . . the fossil predunculate cirripedia." But Sowerby had not yet completed all of the five plates required for the monograph and a long delay ensued.

Continuing with the recent forms, Darwin did not write to Fitch throughout the entire summer and autumn of 1850. He was apparently still involved with writing up the monograph, and in September wrote to Bowerbank explaining the layout. Darwin planned to use "four or five woodcuts to illustrate points in (the) Introduction on nomenclature" and he had got "Mr, Sowerby to make the drawings on wood." He noted that, while "most authors give the short Specific Description in English," he would prefer to give them in Latin, "I can give the English also if approved of," he added. Having heard nothing from Darwin for six months, Fitch wrote in late October asking whether he might inquire concerning his specimens. Darwin promptly replied.

 

LETTER 13 MS XIV

 

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

November 3d (1850)

My dear Sir

Far from thinking your note & question unreasonable, I have marvelled at your good nature, I should say kindness, in not having written long ago to demand why your specimens have been kept so long. I pledge you my honour that it has not been directly or indirectly anyways my fault. I have done all in my power to urge on Mr Sowerby to complete the engravings, & so have some of the members of the Council of the Pal. Soc. I know Mr S. has made some progress, & I hope he has made much. No one can be so anxious as I am for many reasons to finish the fossil Part of the Cirripedia. It is most provoking to me to reflect that I have detained so many specimens so long from their owners, some I am ashamed to say for twice as long as I have had yours. I do hope you will let Mr S. keep the specimens till he has completed the engravings—so important has your collection been to me, that the withdrawl [sic] would quite destroy my monograph. The only conceivable cause of Mr S. monstrous delays must have been some previous engagements, & the routine of the Botanic Garden. I do not doubt but that he must complete his engagements before long, & then your specimens shall be immediately returned. I have written to him repeatedly, but I will do so again,

When I last wrote to you, I had thought that ere this time I shd certainly have returned you your most interesting collection. Pray believe me that I have been truly grieved at all this delay & allow me to trespass a little longer on your kindness.

Yours very sincerely

C. Darwin

 

Darwin had become quite dependent upon Fitch. His collection had provided not only two co-embedded specimens for a model to sort out the separate valves from the secondary period but also many other valves described and figured in his monograph. It formed the basis for Scalpellum fossula, three new species of Pollicipes, and removed the difficulties in classifying Scalpellum maximum. Of the five plates of engravings, four contained figured specimens from Fitch. Plate IL was nearly entirely based upon Fitch,

 

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[page] 485

 

and even the specimens figured under Pollicipes angelini were actually from the Fitch collection.

Darwin, as he promised, dispatched another of his repeated enquiries to Sowerby.

Fitch responded about November 9 granting Darwin a further extension but presumably urged that his specimens soon be returned. Was James Sowerby the only available engraver? Fitch offered to send more specimens if such were required and designated his London agent as Messrs Barclay & Sons. Darwin was to send the valves there when ready

 

LETTER 14 MS XIII

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Nov. 11th (1850)

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged for your kind note. By the same Post, there came in answer to my letter of complaint to Mr Sowerby one of 5 Plates perfect, full of drawings of your specimens. He assures me he will make as much progress as possible & that one chief cause of the delay has been that his house has been pulled down in the Botanic Gardens. I will again write to him & tell him that you will very soon demand back your specimens whether finished or not. Mr. S. is by no means the only Engraver employed by the Pal. Soc. I did not know how dreadfully dilatory he was, when I picked him out as (the) most capable of doing the work well.

I thank you much for the present of the pamphlet I wish that I was more worthy to receive it.

Yours sincerely

C. Darwin

I beg to thank you most particularly for your further offer of more specimens, but I really stand in no need of any others.

 

After another pause, Darwin sent Fitch a further progress report during December.

 

LETTER 15 MS XV

To: Robert Fitch

Down Farnborough Kent

Monday

(16? December 1850)

Dear Sir,

I send one line to assure you that it is not my fault, or that of the Palaeont Soc. that your collection (as well as (those) of many other people) has been detained so utterly unnecessarily long. I have got back several of your specimens quite safe with excellent drawings from Mr Sowerby but he has yet several in hand. He has also, arranged the places of all on the Plates; but his progress is intolerably slow. We do all we can to urge him on. I assure you the very week on which I can get from Sowerby proof-Plates & see that the Engravings are correct your specimens shall most faithfully be all returned. Until then I trust to your kindness & liberality to be patient with me. This obviously requires no answer

Your faithfully obliged

C. Darwin

 

About mid-January Darwin must have received the finished plates and made the necessary comparison. He recovered the specimens and then wrote his final letter to Fitch.

 

LETTER 16 MS XVI

To: Robert Fitch

(Friday )

Down Farnborough Kent

Jan 24th (1851)

My dear Sir

At last I have the great happiness to be able to say that I have finally compared your specimens with Proof-Plates & have at last done with them, I thank you once again very sincerely for your very long loan of them: they have been of the greatest use to me. None have been in the least injured in passing through Mr Sowerby's hands. You will remember that some were injured in first coming here & that with your permission I removed several from the Chalk. I am certain, that they are scientifically in a more valuable state than when sent, though some are not so ornamental.

I this morning packed up about half, each one or two spec(imens) in a separate pill-box, so that none will be injured I hope. All will have name on lid or on separate label; some valves are folded up in silver paper. If I do not hear to the contrary before Wednesday morning (the 29th) I will send all in a Box to Messrs Barclay 95 Farringdon St. (London, E.C.4.) If you shd generously be inclined, as you once hinted, to give me any duplicate specimens, I wd gladly accept them for the British Museum, to which I intend giving all my own collection & all

that I can collect.

Once again with my sincere thanks I remain dear Sir

Yours very faithfully

C. Darwin