From Gaston de Saporta 6 September 1868
Summary
Strong support for theory of descent.
Observations on palaeobotany of S. France. Most woody angiosperm genera date far back. Magnolia type unchanged. Intermediate fossil species. Ancient species of Quercus persists as variety of modern species. Fossil evidence of ice age.
CD’s works have been an inspiration in France.
| Author: | Louis Charles Joseph Gaston (Gaston) de Saporta, comte de Saporta |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Sept 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 31 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6352 |
Matches: 15 hits
- … 6. ) [ crossed pencil ] *4 Origin of Fruit trees valuable [ crossed pencil ] (5 On litle [ …
- … resembling Cercis siliquastrum , the Judas tree, see Saporta 1867–8 , pp. 117–19 (vol. …
- … synonym of P. terebinthus , the turpentine tree) in Saporta 1867–8 , pp. 52–4 (vol. 9), …
- … I have just drawn attention to a Turpentine tree which seems to me to be halfway between …
- … in the Quaternary period. 6 o . As regards the pear tree—besides the stock, which is …
- … probably unique, from which this tree comes, species or subspecies also exist that are …
- … forms are to be found, which grow to tree stature like Q. Ilex and have the leaves of …
- … of the extant terebinth or turpentine tree, Pistacia terebinthus , see n. 9, below. The …
- … the tendency of ‘peculiar varieties’ of trees to reproduce themselves by seed. Saporta …
- … Decaisne’s conclusions regarding the pear tree in Variation 1: 350–1; CD cited Decaisne …
- … as the Monpellier maple, the Turpentine tree, the firethorn, the hawthorn, Cercis etc. …
- … likes; but it yields varieties that virtually blend with the ordinary pear tree, even in …
- … Provence the tree is often grafted as a pear and hybrids between them are probably …
- … however verified— the fruit of this pear tree serves as animal fodder here. This species …
- … do not think it the
〈 stock of all〉 apple trees, which grow pretty poorly in〈 Provence〉 and …
From Jonathan Peel 4 March 1868
Summary
Sends copy of a paper on his flock of sheep, which confirms much of what CD says in Variation,
together with a note he made of an instance of cattle "determining the existence" of a tree [cf. Origin, ch. 3].
| Author: | Jonathan Peel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Mar 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 46.1: 96–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5977 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … made of an instance of cattle "determining the existence" of a tree [ cf. Origin , ch. 3]. …
- … absolutely determining the existence ” of a Tree. The interest I have long felt in …
- … to. “A Similar instance as regards another tree has occurred within my own observation. …
- … A few years after the trees in Bracken & Bank woods were planted, I was much struck by the …
From B. D. Walsh 29 August 1868
Summary
On the delay in receiving CD’s new book [Variation] and his delight in a borrowed copy.
Encloses a Prospectus on his new periodical "American Entomologist" devoted to economic entomology.
Comments on the talents of his young partner, C. V. Riley.
Requests photographs for Riley of CD and Westwood.
Dr J. L. Le Conte has not yet received the request that he furnish CD with information about the stridulatory organs of Coleoptera.
| Author: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Aug 1868 |
| Classmark: | Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology: Charles Valentine Riley papers, Scrapbook no. 9, p. 61); DAR 47: 180; DAR 193: 54; Field Museum (pasted into C. V. Riley’s personal copy of his own 1st Annual Report of the Missouri State Entomologist) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6332A |
Matches: 7 hits
- … He says that among a thousand peach trees, about twenty of which are now bearing, the …
- … in an orchard where no other except apple trees were raised. Mr. C. V. Riley replies as …
- … We have excellent evidence of peach-stones producing nectarine trees, and of nectarine- …
- … stones producing peach trees—the …
- … same tree bearing peaches and …
- … nectarines—of peach trees suddenly producing by bud variation nectarines (such nectarines …
- … in part peach; and lastly of one nectarine tree first bearing half-and- half fruit, and …
From M. T. Masters 7 September 1868
Summary
Thanks for Emanuel Bonavia’s letter on a Laburnum monster.
| Author: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Sept 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 77 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6354 |
From Friedrich Hildebrand 2 January 1868
Summary
Reports making graft-hybrid potatoes.
Has found direct action of pollen in Mays [Zea] crosses and apple-trees.
F. Delpino has asked for CD’s address.
| Author: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Jan 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 207 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5774 |
From J. J. Weir [14 April 1868]
Summary
Starlings find new mates readily. Nesting in threes common.
Recognition of song by birds.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [14 Apr 1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 88–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6152 |
From Osbert Salvin 20 June 1868
Summary
Shot a sandpiper in Norway, the hind toe of which was clasped by a freshwater bivalve.
Sends replies to CD’s queries about sex ratios in humming-birds.
| Author: | Osbert Salvin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 June 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 18, DAR 205.3: 288 (Letters), DAR 84.2: 79-82, 85–6, DAR 86: C22, C24 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6253 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … bird nesting in a hole that passed through a tree was a myth, and that the male never sat …
- … hen bird The eggs were in a hole in a decayed tree to which there was only one entrance. …
- … of T. mexicanus which was in a hole of a tree out of which the male bird flew. 2. Since I …
- … which searched the flowers of a row of willow trees. – 0.3 My dear Sir, … supplied. — 1.5] …
- … process of flight when passing from one tree to another it struck me as if it was done “ …
From John Scott 8 January [1868]
Summary
Asks CD for memorandum giving his opinion on a proposal to move the site of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. Gives details of the position, the physical character and the climate of the present site to show how desirable a move would be.
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 116 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5351 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Borassus , and Corypha. Scott refers to trees planted by William Roxburgh and Nathaniel …
- … and R. Desmond 1992 . For more on the trees destroyed, and on those spared, see Burkill [ …
- … of this is that all the tap roots of our trees are destroyed—all depends on a series of …
- … of adventitious rooting Fici) there are no aged trees— I may safely say that few are to be …
- … cyclone of 1864 uprooted upwards of 1000 trees, and the late one in November uprooted 700 …
From W. D. Fox 29 October [1868]
Summary
Thanks CD for a recent letter.
Reports on his health, which has been bad for 12 months.
Sends extracts of works on domestication.
Discusses the pairing of various birds; comments on the pugnacity of partridges, pheasants, male guinea-fowl, and peacocks.
Gives proportions of sexes in pheasants.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Oct [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 189; DAR 193: 112; DAR 83: 187, DAR 84.1: 128–30, DAR 86: A87–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6436 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Variation 2: 19–20, CD referred to the trees raised by his father, Robert Waring Darwin , …
- … berried holly; CD wrote that his father’s trees also produced yellow berries. In Variation …
- … accidentally in an Asparagus bed beneath the tree) were well coloured copper Beeches & 1 2 …
- … were brought away, promise to be very nice trees, with dark leaves. From Times August 6. …
- … chattering & flying about amongst the trees, & sometimes fighting. ” My own recollections …
- … afterwards on nest. This was on a spruce tree at least 15 feet high— he left the trap …
From Fritz Müller 9 September 1868
Summary
Will repeat CD’s experiments on dimorphic and trimorphic plants.
Auditory organs of Orthoptera; stridulation in lamellicorn beetles.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Sept 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 82: A92, Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 146–7. |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6359 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … galeata commonly visited some small trees of a Solanum species and ate the unripe fruit. …
- … days in a cage, then set the cage under the Solanum tree and opened it. But the parrot had …
- … shot down one after the other from the same tree, and a neighbour of mine told me that he …
- … a hundred jacutingas out of a large guarajuva tree. The winter of 1866 was unusually cold, …
- … experience; it was brought down again from the tree with a noose as easily as before, …
- … and it has yet again visited the tree on which it has been twice captured; even today I …
From Edward Blyth 1 October 1868
Summary
Gives CD a reference to one of his papers ["Remarks on the modes of variation of nearly affined species or races of birds", J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 19 (1850): 221–9]
and discusses moulting in birds.
Quotes instance of an action by an elephant that apparently displays considerable intelligence.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Oct 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 223 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6406 |
From Alexander Wallace 25 February 1868
Summary
Asks CD to make his queries about proportion of sexes more precise so he can keep them in mind in his experiments with silkworms. [see Descent 1: 313.]
| Author: | Alexander Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B69–70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5933 |
From ? 6 April 1868
Summary
Gives details of some points that occurred to him while reading Variation, including observations on horses, cattle, silkworms, and hereditary baldness and disease.
| Author: | Unidentified |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 159: 139 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6097 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … a little before the other I have an elm tree in front of my house which when planted there …
- … up from the top which continued to grow in the common way and gave the tree the appearance …
- … of a tree growing from the top of a green umbrella From that time however the weeping …
- … out any leaves whereas the rest of the tree is flourishing so I conclude they are dead. To …
From J. J. Weir [before 3] March 1868
Summary
Aggressive behaviour of a bullfinch toward new arrival in JJW’s aviary.
Sexual differences in goldfinches: size of beaks.
Sexual selection in Lepidoptera.
Thinks Dr Alex Wallace’s observations on Bombyx not conclusive in proving that no preference is shown by females.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 3] Mar 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 84.1: 51–2 and DAR 82: A107–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5964 |
From Edward Blyth [3 April 1868]
Summary
Discusses apes and their relationships to each other. Writes particularly of the gibbon, its structure and well-developed legs giving it the ability to walk without using its hands.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [3 Apr 1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 45: 29, DAR 83: 156 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6089 |
From Robert Russell 27 February 1868
Summary
A reply to CD’s inquiry in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 2: 135]. The proportion of females to males in lambs of highland black-faced sheep.
Sends paper on conditions that favour predominance of plants.
| Author: | Robert Russell |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B21; DAR 86: C16 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5945 |
From Thomas Rivers 31 January 1868
Summary
Thanks CD for sending him Variation and for honouring his name by its frequent mention in the work.
| Author: | Thomas Rivers |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 31 Jan 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 172 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5821 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Rivers is cited in Variation , especially for information on fruit and ornamental trees. …
To B. D. Walsh 21 September 1868
Summary
Thanks BDW for pamphlets [by S. H. Scudder and J. D. Caton].
His information about Cicada is of extraordinary interest. Discusses stridulation organs which certainly sometimes differ in the sexes. CD would be curious to know if "dumb" Cicada can breed.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Date: | 21 Sept 1868 |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh 14) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6382 |
To G. H. Lewes 7 August [1868]
Summary
Thinks GHL’s articles are quite excellent; hopes they will be republished.
Discusses adaptation. Doubts whether similar conditions without selection can produce similar organs independent of blood relationship: "resemblances due to descent and adaptation can commonly be distinguished".
Discusses luminous insects, electrical organs of fish, thorns and spines.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Henry Lewes |
| Date: | 7 Aug [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 185: 42; Argyll Papers, Inveraray Castle (NRAS 1209/985) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6308 |
From Alexander Wallace 28 February 1868
Summary
Proportion of sexes in insects, captured and bred. [see Descent 1: 313.]
| Author: | Alexander Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B41–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5953 |
| letter | (46) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (39) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (3) |
| Hildebrand, Friedrich | (1) |
| Lewes, G. H. | (1) |
| Saporta, Gaston de | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (46) |
| Blyth, Edward | (5) |
| Haeckel, Ernst | (5) |
| Weir, J. J. | (4) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
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…
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. …
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, …
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. …
