Dear Darwin

Here is a note & sketch, from Prof. Rood¹ of New York, which is to the point as to ears.

I sent to Hooker, to forward to you two articles in Nation—on Insectivorous Plants²—written to reclaim your work, from Bennett— who began to appropriate it, &c, &c—³

It is already leading to discovery   A physician in Carolina—a good observer—already writes me—that in S. variolaris—the best of Sarracenias he thinks he finds the watery liquid anæsthetic (??) and the sweet secretion not.— But he says there is a line of sweet—a trail, running from the sweet rim down the edge of the wing outside nearly to the ground, which lures up ants—(with which Wyman tells me the pitchers are crowded).—⁴ Just like the train of Indian corn which hunters scatter along the ground to lure wild turkies into the trap! Does not that beat all!

Also my articles have resulted in the discovery related in the paper enclosed.⁵ The take off of Thomson’s germs from another planet is good.⁶

I am in great haste but always | Yours sincerely | Asa Gray