From Thomas Rivers 20 May 1866
Summary
Sends a sketch of the haricot climbing the shoot of the plum-tree [see 4866].
Hopes to see CD at the [Horticultural] Congress on Wednesday [30 May].
Sends data on movement direction of Wisteria shoots.
| Author: | Thomas Rivers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 May 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 166; 176: 188.1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5102 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of the haricot climbing the shoot of the plum-tree [see 4866 ]. Hopes to see CD at the [ …
- … the N.E, & caught hold of the young shoot of a plum tree trained to the wall in front of …
- … which the row of beans was growing the tree here made what gardeners call “foreright” …
- … I cut the shoots sent to you are from a tree turned to a S.W. aspect so that their return …
From Ernst Haeckel 11 January 1866
Summary
Comments on CD’s health.
Discusses origin of life and differentiation of principal classes of plants and animals.
Discusses Generelle Morphologie and its chapter on embryological development.
His lectures on CD’s theory.
Asks CD for larger portrait of himself and for several copies of the small photograph. Will send photographs of German scientists in exchange.
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Jan 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 41 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4973 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Mary. 1995. Exhibiting knowledge: the trees of Dubois, Haeckel, Jesse and Rivers at the …
- … appear, by drawing up the entire family tree (a genealogical table) for each of them. The …
- … the second volume are eight genealogical trees, drawn by Haeckel, displaying the possible …
- … relationships among all living organisms. The first tree summarises …
- … all subsequent trees and has a central section representing the kingdom of ‘Protista’ ( …
- … 1866 , 2: 374–91). Haeckel’s evolutionary trees established a standard iconography for …
- … 1995 , pp. 47–51. CD earlier used a tree-like diagram to illustrate the divergence of …
From Thomas Rivers 8 October 1866
Summary
Has searched scores of purple-fruited nut-trees, but not a nut is to be found. Has heard there are some nearby and will send them as soon as he receives them.
| Author: | Thomas Rivers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Oct 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 168 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5235 |
From Fritz Müller 13 February 1866
Summary
Thanks CD for Journal of researches.
Insect genus Elater is an exception to the rule that all luminous organs give out a green light.
Gives some observations on climbing plants at Itajahy.
His study of orchids has convinced him of the value of CD’s book.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 13 Feb 1866 |
| Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 79–80 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5004A |
Matches: 5 hits
- … example of a plant that climbed a broad tree trunk (roughly 5 feet in circumference). …
- … of the climbers scaling broad-girthed trees were root-climbers (ferns, Aroides, Begonia …
- … an inch in diameter), wound in spirals around a number of huge trees; at first I thought …
- … they were climbers scaling the trees, but later I discovered that they were aerial roots …
- … that lived on the branches of those trees, from where it sent roots towards the earth. …
To J. D. Hooker 30 June [1866]
Summary
Has heard from B. J. Sulivan about the fossils at Gallegos, Patagonia. Would be a great haul for palaeontology if Duke of Somerset would encourage Capt. Mayne to collect them [on survey of Magellan Strait].
Tells JDH of a new map of world that he might use in his lecture [on "Insular floras", BAAS, 1866, J. Bot. Br. & Foreign 5 (1867): 23–31; Gard. Chron. (1867): 6, 27, 50, 75].
Impressed by H. Spencer’s last number, but each suggestion would require years of work to be of use to science.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 30 June [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 292 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5135 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … the production of woody tissue in the trunks of trees on the one hand, & on the other in …
- … enlarged drawings of some leading forms of trees? You will of course have a large map; & …
- … p. 22; see n. 6, below). CD discussed trees on oceanic islands in Origin , pp. 392, …
- … selection on the species. The woody tissue of trees, he claimed, developed in response to …
From J. D. Hooker 31 July 1866
Summary
Questions for his lecture on "Insular floras".
Comments on CD’s criticism of Atlantis. Has no fixed opinion on continental extensions. Great objections to hypotheses of CD and Forbes: botanical to CD’s; geological to Forbes’s. Will point out that natural selection is necessary to both hypotheses.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 July 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 81–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5168 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … the contrary. Is DeCandolle right in saying Trees have restricted ranges? it is quite the …
- … have best chance of being developed into Trees. I should like to look for old moraines on …
- … alluded to the absence of gum (eucalyptus) trees in New Zealand and their presence in …
- … Australia as an example of an island’s tree population being derived independently of the …
- … 1997 ). In Origin , p. 392, CD wrote: ‘trees, as Alph. De Candolle has shown, generally …
From Searles Valentine Wood 16 July 1866
Summary
Barley growing from old oat stalks.
| Author: | Searles Valentine Wood |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 July 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 145 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5156 |
From Thomas Rivers 17 May 1866
Summary
Will be sure to send the Cytisus and Laburnum blooms when they flower.
| Author: | Thomas Rivers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 May 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 165 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5094 |
From George Maw 18 June 1866
Summary
In response to CD’s request for bud-sports, he sends a piece of a fern-leaved beech.
| Author: | George Maw |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 June 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 101 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5124 |
From Friedrich Rolle 12 April 1866
Summary
Gustav von Leonhard and Hans Bruno Geinitz’s Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie [1862–79] unfriendly to CD’s theory.
Lists various German publications dealing with CD’s theory.
| Author: | Friedrich Rolle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Apr 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 203 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5055 |
To J. D. Hooker 10 December [1866]
Summary
A confounded cock ground the crimson seeds up so CD could not find them in its excrement. CD is puzzled by how seeds can be disseminated if merely ground up by birds. Perhaps like acorns from seeds accidentally dropped by birds?
A woodcock’s leg with dry clay clinging to it, from which CD has grown a microscopical rush.
Spencer would have been wonderful if he had trained himself to observe more.
On New Zealand flora and connection with Australia.
Difficulty of speculating about the amount of organic chemical change at different periods.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 308, 308b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5300 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 November [1866]
Summary
Requests water-lily pods to count, weigh, and to germinate some of the seeds of the crossed and uncrossed pods.
Hopes Haeckel did not bore him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 304 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5262 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 December [1866]
Summary
Is sending some plants and seeds to JDH.
Thanks Mrs Hooker for telling him of a life of his grandfather [Erasmus Darwin] of which he had not heard.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 307 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5295 |
To Thomas Rivers 27 April [1866]
Summary
Asks for racemes of Cytisus purpureus-elongatus and C. adami for comparison, because Robert Caspary argues that C. adami is not a common hybrid.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
| Date: | 27 Apr [1866] |
| Classmark: | Remember When Auctions (dealers) (Catalogue 41, 16 March 1997) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5070 |
From Robert Caspary 26 April 1866
Summary
Coming to London for Botanical Congress. Requests interview.
Thanks for photograph.
| Author: | Johann Xaver Robert (Robert) Caspary |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Apr 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 119 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5067 |
From W. E. Darwin 8 and 9 August [1866]
Summary
Notes on examining Rhamnus Frangula
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 and 9 Aug 1866 |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 23) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5185F |
From M. T. Masters 20 April 1866
Summary
Expects R. Caspary’s paper to be published soon.
Reports the conclusions of another of RC’s papers on the movement of tree branches due to cold [Bull. Congr. Int. Bot. & Hortic. Lond. (1866): 98–117]
and discusses a paper by H. Lecoq on the mountain flora of the Auvergne [Proc. Bot. Congr. (1866): 158–65]. He disagrees with CD on glaciation and its effect on geographical distribution.
| Author: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 75 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5062 |
From W. E. Darwin 21 June [1866]
Summary
"It [Rhamnus catharticus?] is certainly a case of dimorphic become dioecious."
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 June [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 109: A80 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5129 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 4 females outlined are from 4 different trees. I have all particulars down about them if …
From Fritz Müller [2 November 1866]
Summary
Sends his observations on sterility of Eschscholzia,
on Oxalis,
and on recently found dimorphic plants.
Sends specimen of Hedyotis [see Forms of flowers, p. 133].
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [2 Nov 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 111: B59, DAR 142: 100, 101, 105, Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 93–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5264 |
To Robert Caspary 21 February [1866]
Summary
Requests copy of paper read at Amsterdam Horticultural Congress, on graft-hybrids like that of Cytisus adami [see 5018].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Xaver Robert (Robert) Caspary |
| Date: | 21 Feb [1866] |
| Classmark: | Yale University: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (GEN MSS MISC Group 1559 F-2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5012 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Bibliography Bean, William Jackson. 1970–88. Trees and shrubs hardy in the British Isles. …
| letter | (42) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Müller, Fritz | (5) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (3) |
| Rivers, Thomas | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (26) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Rivers, Thomas | (2) |
| Caspary, Robert | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (41) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (14) |
| Müller, Fritz | (6) |
| Rivers, Thomas | (5) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (4) |
Thomas Rivers
Summary
Rivers and Darwin exchanged around 30 letters, most in 1863 when Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript of Variation of plants and animals under domestication, the lengthy and detailed sequel to Origin of species. Rivers, an experienced plant breeder…
Matches: 4 hits
- … in Hertfordshire and a leading authority on roses and fruit trees. Darwin initiated the …
- … with detailed information about bud variation in fruit trees, strawberries, roses, and laburnum, and …
- … first read Origin, Rivers was led to consider the growth of trees over several years: how a patch of …
- … on the transmission of characters in weeping ash and thorn trees: “it is Capital for my Purpose”. …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 16 hits
- … ] Mr Coxe “view of the cultivation of Fruit trees in N. America [Coxe 1817].— in Library of …
- … 1835] (Gerard [Gérard 1844]) Fruit & Fruit Trees of America by A. Downing Wiley & …
- … at end April 13 th . Boutcher & Forsyth on Forest trees [Boutcher 1775 and Forsyth 1791 …
- … on œconomy of nature [Biberg 1759]. Barck on foliation of trees [Barck 1759]. Hasselgren on Swedish …
- … & Clarke [Lewis and Clark 1814] Boutcher & Forsyth on Forest Trees [Boutcher 1775 and …
- … 1845] skimmed. June 17 th . Downing Fruit & Forest trees of America [Downing 1845] …
- … p. 209 to 268.) 99 Great work by Decaisne on Fruit Trees. Le Jardin Fruitier [Decaisne …
- … a new method of cultivating and increasing all sorts of trees, shrubs, and flowers . Revised by …
- … 119: 2a Anon. 1839a. Loudon’s British trees and shrubs . Edinburgh Review 69: …
- … *119: 15v. Barck, Harald. 1759. On the foliation of trees. In Stillingfleet, Benjamin, ed., …
- … Boutcher, William. 1775. A treatise on forest trees . Edinburgh. 119: 7a, 13a …
- … William. 1817. A view of the cultivation of fruit trees . Philadelphia. *119: 4v. …
- … Downing, Andrew Jackson. 1845. The fruits and fruit trees of America . London. [Darwin …
- … Evelyn, John. 1664. Sylva, or a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber … To …
- … defects, and injuries in all kinds of fruit and forest trees. London. 119: 7a, 13a …
- … 1838. Arboretum et Fructicetum Britannicum; or the trees and shrubs of Britain, native and …
Visiting the Darwins
Summary
'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…
Matches: 3 hits
- … shrubbery at one side, gravel walks, flower beds, nice trees with seats beneath them, & green …
- … shrubbery at one side, gravel walks, flower beds, nice trees with seats beneath them, & green …
- … lane, to see some old oak boles, almost as big as California trees in diameter, but only shells— Mr. …
Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson
Summary
[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…
Matches: 29 hits
- … where more than thirty feet above the sea, covered with palm trees and encircling a large shallow …
- … limits but all the Islets being covered with lofty coconut trees – they are for all intents or …
- … a half of its superfices - the remainder being covered with trees of other species of the class – …
- … of land around at an equal height by the tops of the coconut trees – As a white cloud here and there …
- … down to high water mark with green bushes and tall coconut trees – in the flat of coral rock nearly …
- … water, and at high tide – the leafy branches of the bushy trees particularly those of a willow …
- … the long arms (leaf branches or fronds) of the coco-nut trees as they waved in the evening breeze. …
- … more luxuriant than on any of the others – the coconut trees generally grow separate, but here the …
- … and curved fronds the most shady arbours, and overhead the trees occupied by numbers of gannets, …
- … which [ f.168r p.43 ] smoothly hovers about among the trees and every now and then comes …
- … glittering the sun – whilst around its borders the coconut trees stand with their lofty trunks – …
- … Sea and be caught by the Sharks – and by climbing the Coco trees befalling and breaking their necks” …
- … sand– in which the coconut tree and a few sorts of timber trees specially adapted to that soil only …
- … forest and jungles raise rice, sugarcane, pepper, and spice trees – at the same time preserving the …
- … – there are no mountains or rivers *[24] – few trees are visible white sandy patches, scrubby …
- … Sound, a thick wood was discovered in which there were many trees of considerable size – and in the …
- … walking to and fro with him in the shade of the coconut trees. A Peripatetic Academical mode, which …
- … were also allowed the produce of a certain number of coa-nut trees – and might catch fish and turtle …
- … husk the fruit on the spot – where it has fallen from the trees – which accordingly they do. Firmly …
- … issued a law of that description (in the case of the coconut trees) but I find that I had given him …
- … avenue of most elegant and magnificent orange and apple trees (these being in fact of the real …
- … that the greater part of the sea fowl roost on branches ^of trees^ and that many rats make their …
- … believe that “rats make their nests on the top of coconut trees at ninety to a hundred feet above …
- … “Besides the palm there are upon the larger Islets other trees particularly a kind of Teak – and …
- … opposite extract thus “There are upon the largest Islets trees of other sorts – particularly a kind …
- … to rear by cutting [ f.217v p.138 ] down the coconut trees and raising maize *[31] ) to the …
- … conception – being completely overshadowed by coconut trees and as a natural consequence swarming …
- … mosquitos is a natural consequence of the shade of Coconut trees” may not be deemed admissible by …
- … a certain Voyageur hath reported that “they ran up the trees and barked at him.” *[36] It …
Mauro Galetti: profile of an ecologist
Summary
Mauro Galetti solved Darwin’s puzzle of the ‘bright seeds’. This is what he told us about becoming an ecologist.
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
4.51 Frederick Holder 'Life and Work'
Summary
< Back to Introduction A popular biography of Darwin for young readers by the American naturalist Charles Frederick Holder, published in 1891, sought to present him as ‘an example to the youth of all lands’ (p. v). Thus ‘our hero’ was shown to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … cape can be seen a distant view of Down House amid its trees and gardens, with smoke rising from the …
Darwin’s earthquakes
Summary
Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…
Darwin on childhood
Summary
On his engagement to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1838, Darwin wrote down his recollections of his early childhood. Life. Written August–– 1838 My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approximately tell, and which must have been before…
Mendoza, Argentina
Summary
Geologising across the Andes
Matches: 1 hits
- … Andes and finds of fossil shells at 1200ft, and petrified trees. …
4.18 'Figaro' chromolithograph 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction In a cartoon of 1874 by Figaro’s French-born artist Faustin Betbeder (known as Faustin), Darwin holds up a mirror reflecting himself and the startled ape sitting beside him. Their hairy bodies, seen against a background of palm…
Matches: 1 hits
- … him. Their hairy bodies, seen against a background of palm trees, are made to look closely alike, …
4.3 Alfred Crowquill, caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction One of the satires on Darwin’s Origin of Species was drawn by the prolific designer and illustrator Alfred Henry Forrester, who used the pseudonym ‘Alfred Crowquill’. His name appears prominently at bottom left of this print as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in human clothes. Above them, snakes coil round the trees while more monkeys cavort in the branches. …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees. * But he likewise believed in …
4.29 Richard Grant White, 'Fall of man'
Summary
< Back to Introduction At about the same time as The Hornet pictured Darwin as ‘A Venerable Orang-Outang’, a novella by the American journalist and critic Richard Grant White offered a more scurrilous take on The Descent of Man. The Fall of Man: Or,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … are shown embracing amorously, fighting or cavorting in trees. One wonders whether Darwin viewed …
Darwin’s species notebooks: ‘I think . . .’
Summary
I have lately been sadly tempted to be idle, that is as far as pure geology is concerned, by the delightful number of new views, which have been coming in, thickly & steadily, on the classification & affinities & instincts of animals—bearing…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In the first of the notebooks Darwin drew three trees. During the past few decades, one of these has …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 4 hits
- … vegetation springs up; but it has been observed that the trees now growing on the ancient Indian …
- … virgin forests. What a struggle between the several kinds of trees must here have gone on during …
- … to increase, and all feeding on each other or on the trees, or their seeds and seedlings, or on the …
- … course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on the old Indian ruins …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as a general rule, to be now forming. Where many large trees grow, we expect to find saplings. …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … houses are like what children make in summer, with boughs of trees.— I do not think any spectacle …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as a general rule, to be now forming. Where many large trees grow, we expect to find saplings. …
