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Letter from Hermann Hoffmann to Charles Robert Darwin 4 July 1877
Presentlÿ I have under observation a verÿ remarkable calyptra-like way of opening of the flower of Papaver hybridum (2 pots with 50–60 specimens); all of them cleistogamous, and verÿ fertile; by the bÿ somewhat dwarfish (from standing on too narrow ground). The case has some resemblance with Vitis vinifera.—1 Not recorded in Masters’ teratologÿ.2 Quite new to me, and very different from the ordinarÿ behaviour of this plant in previous generations and even now (of her sisters) under ordinary circumstances (in open ground).
Yours v. f. | H. H
Giessen. 4. Julÿ 77
1
Hoffman described these plants in Botanische Zeitung, 10 May 1878, p. 290; for the illustration, see ibid., 3 May 1878, facing p. 280. Papaver hybridum is the rough poppy. A calyptra is a hood or hoodlike structure. For a colour reproduction of Hoffmann’s sketch, see the plate section following p. 468. Vitis vinifera: wine grape.
2
Maxwell Tylden Masters, Vegetable teratology, an account of the principal deviations from the usual construction of plants (Masters 1869).