My claim for you about teleology I have made several times, in “Silliman’s Journal,”[95] and elsewhere. It is a matter on which I have a good deal insisted. Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY. P. S.--My _point_ (which is _blunted_) was to show how very near Brown came to “hitting the nail on the head” without hitting it, striking wild instead! A. G. TO W. M. CANBY. July 6, 1874. I am glad if you have Darlingtonia in a state to examine. I have some young leaves growing, which show nothing yet. Mellichamp will send me a paper, which I will read at Hartford next month. Won’t you post up Darlingtonia also--getting what you can from Lemmon. He has not written to me about it. My young fish-tails show no exudation yet; and they are colored like the rest of the leaf. Ever yours, A. GRAY. BOTANIC GARDEN, July 8, 1874. DEAR CANBY,--Yours of 7th instant received. I thought you had live Darlingtonia. Of ours the old plant has died after starting three new offsets. But the growing leaves are small. If it goes on I may do something. Thus far I have detected no water in the tubes, nor any sticky secretion. But I shall slit one soon. Make notes for Hartford. You have not guessed the conundrum, though you have made a step in distinguishing the two different movements. I’ll tell you. It is to strain out the small flies. Do you take? Or want details? I send you Darwin’s late letters,--one came this evening. We have lost all those Pinguiculas. Can we get any from Wilmington now? Are there any near Dr. Mellichamp? You may forward Darwin’s last letter to him and set him to observing,--collecting and preserving leaves with insects stuck fast, and margin turned over. See if ours turn over the edge! How does D. find out they digest? July 14. When Dionæa is irritated by a small fly, he has plenty of time to escape through the meshes, and the leaf soon opens, ready for better luck next time. Think what a waste if the leaf had to go through all the process of secretion, etc., taking so much time, all for a little gnat. It would not pay. Yet it would have to do it except for this arrangement to let the little flies escape. But when a bigger one is caught he is sure for a good dinner. That is real Darwin. I just wonder you and never thought of it. But _he_ did. Pretty good,--the solar protector! So Fendler is near you. Remember me to the good fellow. I wish he had let Cosmical Science alone! But now he never will, and is a gone goose. Ever yours, A. GRAY. Dr. Gray, being sent away for a cough, made a journey to Apalachicola, Florida, going by Washington, Augusta and Tallahassee, of which and his successful search for Torreya he wrote a lively account for the “American Agriculturist,” republished in his “Scientific Papers,” selected by C. S. Sargent.