My dear Sir

I was very happy to receive your letter & so far from any apology being needful, I thank you for this step towards an acquaintancy which I may hope some day to make more fully.

I have not carried my little experiments any further. They had been discontinued long before I read that little paper to our local Philosophical Society, ¹ but I felt that they ought to be recorded before they became forgott⁠⟨⁠en.⁠⟩⁠ The Geum rivale in my garden was itself very little disposed to seed— I have an idea that it only seeded when fertilized with foreign pollen but the resulting hybrid is very fertile & has abundantly seeded ever since & the seedlings have come up by thousands—² I have to this day growing plants and as the situation is always changing it is obvious they must be new plants. They all seed immensely & are precisely the same as the first crop of plan⁠⟨⁠ts.⁠⟩⁠

⁠⟨⁠Th⁠⟩⁠us the G. rivale fertilise⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ the number of seeds is certainly vastly more than in the G. rivale,—if these were ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠mature⁠⟩⁠ in that plant which has since died away,—but not quite so many as in G. urbanum which I have since brought into the garden.³

Epilobium Montano-tetragonum is also very prolific but I cannot speak of number of seeds— I observed the generations by saving seed to the fourth year & since that they take their chance so that the hybrids, now coming up may be only the 2^d. generation or that of any other subsequent number.

I shall be happy to send you ⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠eum & capsules of Epilobium when ripe— I hope you will sow them & see the plants.

I think I might have obtained hybrid seeds of Linaria if I had tried the pollen of L. repens on the stigma of L. vulgaris instead of the reverse which is what I attempted—⁴ In the garden the plants of L. repens creep so prodigeously that they have still chance for perfecting seed.

I remain, dear Sir | Very faithfully yours | T. Bell Salter C. Darwin Esq.