Chapter 379

Down, February 21st [1873].

You have given me exactly the information which I wanted.

Geniuses jump. I have just procured formic acid to try whether its vapour or minute drops will delay germination of fresh seeds; trying others at same time for comparison. But I shall not be able to try them till middle of April, as my despotic wife insists on taking a house in London for a month from the middle of March.

I am glad to hear of the Primer (710/2. "Botany" (Macmillan's Science Primers).); it is not at all, I think, a folly. Do you know Asa Gray's child book on the functions of plants, or some such title? It is very good in giving an interest to the subject.

By the way, can you lend me the January number of the "London Journal of Botany" for an article on insect-agency in fertilisation?