From Oswald Heer 1 March 1875
Summary
Comments on his Flora fossilis Arctica [vol. 3 (1875)]. Discusses successive appearance of plant families in geological periods. Relates plant development to rise of herbivorous mammals.
Comments on death of Charles Lyell.
| Author: | Oswald Heer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Mar 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 130 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9876 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … alders; Fraxinus : ashes; Robinia : locust trees. In his monograph on Anthracotherium (a …
- … the flora consisted for the most part of trees & shrubs with stiff leathery leaves, and …
- … goats) and many live more on leaves of trees & twigs than on grass. Lyell’s death has …
- … the plant world was made up largely of trees and shrubs with tough leathery leaves. Still …
- … Ficus, Quercus, Diospyrus, etc. , the trees we know from this period. They were omnivores, …
- … greater wealth of Gramineae and numerous trees and shrubs with soft, falling leaves (such …
- … by meadowlands and it was forested with trees and shrubs, whose leaves served the mammals …
- … and many of them live more on leaves of trees and bushes than on grass. Lyell’s death has …
- … from roots of plants & on fruits seeds of trees, fruits of the Ficus, the Cluerous (?? ) …
- … wealth of Gramineæ meets us, and numerous trees & shrubs, with falling soft leaves (as …
- … with meadows which were wooded with trees & shrubs, which might serve by their leaves to …
From J. J. Weir 9 July 1875
Summary
Sends CD some of the Cytisus, which has produced yellow flowers on a purple graft.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 87 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10055 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … head Gardener closely and he assures me the tree has not been tampered with. — I feel as …
- … by himself and planted with the choicest trees and shrubs, numbering many thousands. — He …
- … are purpureus; the contrast throughout the tree between the two kinds of foliage is most …
- … could not have budded or grafted the tree without my Brothers very sharp sight observing …
To J. J. Weir 5 July 1875
Summary
Discusses case of Cytisus graft described by JJW.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
| Date: | 5 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 334 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10043 |
From Fritz Müller 25 December 1875
Summary
"Sambaquis", or shell mounds accumulated by former inhabitants of the coast, contain shells of some animals that FM has never seen living.
Ants that live on imbauba trees (Cecropia) are attracted by small bodies at base of each petiole.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Dec 1875 |
| Classmark: | Nature, 17 February 1876, pp. 304–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10324 |
From J. D. Hooker 20 June 1875
Summary
Thiselton-Dyer’s appointment has come.
Wants to discuss insectivorous plants and get some experiments going.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 June 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 30–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10025 |
From J. P. Thomasson 23 March 1875
Summary
On nesting habits of pied and spotted flycatchers.
JPT disagrees with CD’s comment in Descent.
Marriages of first cousins produce congenital deaf-mutism.
| Author: | John Pennington Thomasson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Mar 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 109 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9900 |
From J. J. Weir 6 July 1875
Summary
Yellow flowers occurring on a purple Cytisus grafted onto a yellow stock.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 85 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10044 |
To Edouard Bergson 13 October 1875
Summary
Comments on difficulty of distinguishing between lower animal and vegetable organisms.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Edouard Bergson |
| Date: | 13 Oct 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 143: 111 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10195 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … as rhizopods and diatoms; in his phylogenetic tree, it was depicted as the central kingdom …
From a lady [before 17 July 1875]
Summary
Reports the possible extinction of the Macartney Rose.
| Author: | Unidentified |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 17 July 1875] |
| Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle, 17 July 1875, p. 78 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10070F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … The Macartney Rose, of which I have a tree, has all over England simultaneously ceased to …
From Alphonse de Candolle 15 July 1875
Summary
Thanks for Insectivorous plants.
| Author: | Alphonse de Candolle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 July 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10067 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and flower-buds in several species of trees. A copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection– …
From Samuel Newington 10 December 1875
Summary
Reports on various observations and experiments: a duck–fowl hybrid with queer habits,
three cases of man–dog hybrids,
his interarching vine experiments,
and orange scale.
| Author: | Samuel Newington |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Dec 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10294 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … any species of immobile sucking insect that attaches itself to the leaves of orange trees. …
To T. M. Story-Maskelyne 27 August [1875–81]
Summary
Explains that the plant is not consuming the flies, but that they die becasue they get stuck in the flowers when fertilising them.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thereza Mary Llewelyn; Thereza Mary Story-Maskelyne |
| Date: | 27 Aug [1875-81] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 88953/4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10136F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … extreme’: ornamental flowers, shrubs and trees in the Darwin family’s garden at the Mount, …
From M. C. Stanley 14 September 1875
Summary
Thanks CD for telling her "such exact truth". She saw Thomas Carlyle at Keston – the country air has done him good – "he is half sorry to have been so unsociable on his first arrival".
| Author: | Mary Catherine Sackville-West, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Gascoyne-Cecil, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Stanley, countess of Derby |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Sept 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 167 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10157 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … New Forest the other day & saw some birch trees with bark exactly like that of the birch …
From James Jameson 26 October 1875
Summary
Report, from a reader of Expression, of a Negro boy’s monkey-like screams while having fractured femur adjusted without chloroform.
| Author: | James Jameson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Oct 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 168: 44 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10229 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … bolted into the bush and ran against a tree. The injury sustained by the rider was very …
From Francis Darwin [after 2 December 1875]
Summary
Sends thanks for CD’s help in making him a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Dyer has sent some Erinem.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 2 Dec 1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 33 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10287G |
Matches: 1 hit
- … an abnormal growth of the epidermis of the trees on which it is parasitic. Dyer says his …
To J. J. Weir 8 July [1875]
Summary
Is very interested in JJW’s report on a purple laburnum grafted onto yellow stock which then produces yellow flowers. CD requests racemes to examine.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
| Date: | 8 July [1875] |
| Classmark: | Boston Public Library (Rare Books MSS Acc. 324) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10051 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … so in the case of C. purpureus. As the tree has produced yellow racemes several times, do …
From Francis Darwin [4 May 1875]
Summary
Will send corrected proofs [of Insectivorous plants].
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [4 May 1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 274.1: 34 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9961G |
Matches: 1 hit
- … layered nest on the branches of coniferous trees. The nest has an outer layer of mosses …
To J. D. Hooker 15 October [1875]
Summary
Has decided to send R. L. Tait’s paper to the Royal Society.
Will try glycerine on Mimosa but doubts it will have an effect.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 Oct [1875] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 394–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10200 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and citing George King for information about a tree of Paritium tricuspis that produced a …
From E. J. Johnston 16 March 1875
Summary
Reports an Araujia in Portugal that captures various insects on the horns of its stigma. Relates this to another asclepiad, Apocynum, which also captures insects. Is this "insectivory" or insect fertilisation?
| Author: | Edwin John Johnston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Mar 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 168: 74 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9890 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … they became caught like a wedge in a tree. Knapp, in his “Journal of a Naturalist”, says …
| letter | (19) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Darwin, Francis | (2) |
| Weir, J. J. | (2) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
| Gascoyne-Cecil, M. C. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
| Weir, J. J. | (2) |
| Bergson, Edouard | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Llewelyn, T. M. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
| Weir, J. J. | (4) |
| Darwin, Francis | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Bergson, Edouard | (1) |
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. …
