To George Bentham 26 November [1856]
Summary
Asks GB for help in clearing up his problems about Leguminosae, in connection with his "wild bit of speculation on the crossing of plants" [see Natural selection, p. 71].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Bentham |
| Date: | 26 Nov [1856] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Bentham Correspondence, Vol. 3, Daintree–Dyer, 1830–1884, GEB/1/3: f. 684) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2003 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … with his "wild bit of speculation on the crossing of plants" [see Natural selection , p. …
- … which I can collect on the natural crossing of the varieties of cultivated Leguminosæ; & …
- … conflicting; but preponderates against crossing ever taking place. Do you happen to know …
- … flowers opening at the same time that any crossing would take place with another flower on …
- … rather a wild bit of speculation afloat on the crossing of plants; & the Leguminosæ are my …
- … of all organic beings occasionally crossing’ ( Natural selection , pp. 35–91). The …
To J. D. Hooker 19 July [1856]
Summary
Multiple creations.
Necessity for crossing in plants and animals: JDH to take up the subject; explains separate sexes in trees.
Continental extensions.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 19 July [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 171 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1932 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Multiple creations. Necessity for crossing in plants and animals: JDH to take up the …
- … that you will take up possibility of crossing; no Botanist has done so which I have long …
- … clear that they must be liable to crossing. Sweet Peas—Bee-orchis, & perhaps Hollyocks …
- … you oftener. If you were to take up crossing, I w d . look over my notes, which perhaps w …
- … cases. To return again to subject of crossing; I have been inclined to speculate so far, …
- … of all organic beings occasionally crossing’ ( Natural selection , pp. 35–91). …
- … CD’s notes for his chapter on crossing (see n. 5, above) and on dichogamy are in DAR 49 …
To J. D. Hooker 1 December [1856]
Summary
Questions JDH on separation of sexes in trees in New Zealand flora.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Dec [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 185 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2008 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Dated by the reference to the crossing of trees, also discussed in the letters to George …
- … 1856] . CD addressed the question of the crossing of trees in Natural selection , pp. 61– …
- … I am become a good deal interested in crossing speculations, though I can come to no …
- … difficulty to the probability of crossing, I want to know whether the following would cost …
- … the separation of sexes (which w d . favour crossing). — Loudon calls the Viburnum, Box, …
- … tree would have so many flowers that any crossing that took place would be with a flower …
- … flowers were all of one sex on a tree, crossing could only take place between flowers of …
To J. D. Hooker [early December 1856]
Summary
Sends JDH part of MS for chapter 3 of Natural selection ["Possibility of all organic beings crossing"] to be corrected and returned.
JDH’s report of Podostemon flowering cleistogamously under water in Bengal.
[Copious revision by JDH.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [early Dec 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.5: 213 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1974 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Possibility of all organic beings crossing"] to be corrected and returned. JDH’s report of …
- … suggested by CD’s interest in the possible crossing of plants that flower under water. See …
- … Watson, 26 November 1856. CD referred to the crossing of these aquatic plants in Natural …
- … recorded having completed the chapter on crossing on 16 December 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix …
- … by CD to form part of his chapter on crossing (see Natural selection , p. 63). The text …
To J. D. Hooker 10 December [1856]
Summary
CD is convinced of relation between separation of sexes and tree-habit.
Recent hard blows against crossing theory.
CD long tormented by land molluscs on oceanic islands; found transport possible experimentally.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Dec [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 186 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2018 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … tree-habit. Recent hard blows against crossing theory. CD long tormented by land molluscs …
- … have had lately some hard blows against my crossing theory, & hardly know what to think. I …
- … of fertility & sterility & on natural crossing has actually run out to 100 pages M.S. , & …
- … of all organic beings occasionally crossing, & on the remarkable susceptibility of the …
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 6 December 1856]
Summary
CD is collecting all the evidence he can on natural crossing of varieties of plants. Asks readers of Gardeners’ Chronicle to give evidence "showing either that Leguminous crops, when grown close together do sometimes cross or on the other hand that they may invariably be grown close together without any chance of deterioration".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
| Date: | [before 6 Dec 1856] |
| Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 6 December 1856, p. 806 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2012 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 November [1856]
Summary
CD finds JDH’s objections to a mundane cold period significant, and he endeavours to show how they do not rule out mutability.
He is writing on crossing.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 15 Nov [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 182 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1989 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 30 August [1856]
Summary
Will forward the Scandaroons.
Is crossing all his pigeons to see which are fertile.
Hopes WBT’s work on fowls’ skulls is not forestalled by T. C. Eyton who also has a grand collection of skeletons.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 30 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1947 |
From J. D. Hooker 7 December 1856
Summary
Has done New Zealand flora calculations. Results support CD’s theory of necessity of crossing. Trees tend to have separate sexes.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Dec 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 113–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2014 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Results support CD’s theory of necessity of crossing. Trees tend to have separate sexes. …
From Charles Cardale Babington 22 November 1856
Summary
He is not sure whether he has seen Subularia flowering above the water, but thinks it probably is an aerial flowerer, at least sometimes.
Has been unable to find an anonymous book on pigeons in the University Library.
| Author: | Charles Cardale Babington |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Nov 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 207: 15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1996 |
To M. J. Berkeley 29 February [1856]
Summary
Preparing paper on seed-soaking for Linnean Society ["Action of sea-water on seeds", Collected papers 1: 264–73]. Wants to use MJB’s results. Lost ardour when he found seeds would not float.
Has grown MJB’s purest pea seeds and got a few variants. Gärtner’s experiments suggest direct action of pollen, but CD thinks it is "mere variation".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
| Date: | 29 Feb [1856] |
| Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/45) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1834 |
To James Dwight Dana 21 December [1856]
Summary
Thanks for sending paper on geological development (Dana 1856). Discusses infertility of species. Discusses first part of Asa Gray’s paper (A. Gray 1856–7). Thanks for note on the Cave Rat. Discusses a new species of fossil cirripede, in the genus Chthamalus. Explains his interest in pigeon breeding.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 21 Dec [1856] |
| Classmark: | Catherine Barnes (dealer) (2003) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2020F |
To J. D. Hooker 13 July [1856]
Summary
Has found no case of Huxley’s eternal hermaphrodites.
Cruelty and waste in nature.
CD does not believe in hybrids.
One proven case of multiple creations would smash CD’s theory.
Asks JDH to read MS on alpine and Arctic distribution.
Lyell’s "conversion" to mutability.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 13 July [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 169 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1924 |
From J. S. Henslow 2 August 1856
Summary
One plant in self-sown patch of Aegilops has assumed a triticoidal character; JSH feels it may be an example of Aegilops passing to wheat.
| Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Aug 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 178 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1936 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to chapter 3 of Natural selection , ‘On the possibility of all organic beings crossing’. …
To J. D. Hooker 21 [May 1856]
Summary
Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 21 [May 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 163 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1876 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … also, Tropical? Can you lend me paper on crossing of Fucus? Ever yours | C. Darwin Also …
To T. H. Huxley 8 July [1856]
Summary
Will use Boltenia case cautiously, if at all.
Polyzoa.
Bisexualism in Flustra and Ascidia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 8 July [1856] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 40) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1922 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … throw any light on the possibility of crossing? With very many thanks | Yours very truly | …
From Laurence Edmondston [before 3 May 1856]
Summary
The vaunted fidelity of the ark bird has its exceptions.
Gives some details on wild pigeons.
Answers in the affirmative CD’s query about drifted trees.
| Author: | Laurence Edmondston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 3 May 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 229 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1865 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … in the vicinity of their coves , & as to crossing to the Mainland of Scotland that is a …
From W. D. Fox 19 December [1856]
Summary
Informs CD that in his experience with peas he has never found the seed to deteriorate.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Dec [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 77: 170 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11799 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of all organic beings occasionally crossing" ( Natural selection , p. 70). This chapter …
From Edward Blyth 8 January [1856]
Summary
Encloses "notes for Mr. D" [see 1818] and a memorandum on the wild cattle of southern India [see 1819].
Breeds of silky fowl of China and Malaya. Black-skinned fowl.
Doubts any breed of canary has siskin blood; all remain true to their type.
Wild canary and finch hybrids.
Hybrids between one- and two-humped camels.
Does not regard zebra markings on asses as an indication of interbreeding but as one of the many instances of markings in the young which more or less disappear in the adult.
Crossing of Coracias species at the edges of their ranges.
Regional variations and intergrading between species of pigeons.
Regards the differences in Treron as specific [see Natural selection, p. 115 n. 1].
Gives other instances of representative species or races differing only in certain details of colouring.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A110–13, A117–21 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1817 |
From H. C. Watson 10 November 1856
Summary
Greatly interested in CD’s experiments with seeds in salt water [see "Action of sea-water on seeds", Collected papers 1: 264–73]. Believes CD exaggerates the force of the objection, against migration, that seeds tend to sink.
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Nov 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 296 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1985 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … or few feet of depth, will prevent their crossing a sea, you must be convinced that they …
| letter | (28) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
| Blyth, Edward | (2) |
| Babington, C. C. | (1) |
| Bunbury, C. J. F. | (1) |
| Edmondston, Laurence | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (2) |
| Bentham, George | (1) |
| Berkeley, M. J. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Blyth, Edward | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (2) |
Darwin's 1876 letters online
Summary
Birth, tragic death . . . and cardigan jackets. To mark the 211th anniversary of Darwin's birth, we have released online the transcripts and footnotes of over 460 letters written to and from him in 1876 and a supplement of 180 letters written before…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am now getting ready a book on the advantages of crossing, which will be a sort of complement to …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 6 hits
- … him to carry out tasks like counting seeds of Lythrum , crossing cowslips with polyanthuses, and …
- … a full conviction of the change of species is.’ Crossing experiments In addition to …
- … Continuing from these earlier studies, in 1864 he conducted crossing experiments between different …
- … other papers of Scott’s followed, reporting the results of crossing experiments on different species …
- … years, Darwin consulted Charles William Crocker about his crossing experiments with hollyhocks, and …
- … and Friedrich Hildebrand in Germany compared results of crossing experiments with a Pulmonaria …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 9 hits
- … to James Moggridge to ask him to observe whether spontaneous crossing of different varieties of this …
- … I got fresh plants, & consequently took up the effect of crossing & self-fertilising plants …
- … in Florence kept varieties of sweet peas separated to avoid crossing ( From Federico Delpino, 18 …
- … native Mediterranean setting. Although he continued his crossing experiments through the early …
- … what great vigour is given to seedling plants by the crossing of their parents’ ( To Fritz Müller, …
- … & have strength to complete it) will be on the advantages of Crossing Plants, & this will …
- … Meehan had been a vocal opponent of Darwin’s views on crossing, and his paper, ‘Are insects any …
- … press observations continued for 10 years on the effects of crossing plants, & I think that …
- … inferred from observations on self fertilising plants that crossing was of little importance …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … whether hybrid sterility was the inevitable result of crossing species. Thomas Huxley had stated …
- … stigmas ’. Darwin had hoped to publish the results of the crossing experiments immediately, but by …
- … 1863, when Lythrum was flowering, Darwin resumed his crossing experiments. He also wrote to …
- … of the various crosses. For this, he turned to his earlier crossing experiments, which included some …
- … adding this work to his book on ‘the good effects of crossing’ ( Cross and self fertilisation ), …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … conclusion in my speculations on the origin of species, that crossing played an important part in …
1877 letters now online
Summary
Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. The transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters written to and from Darwin in 1877 are now online. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877…
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 3 hits
- … was only one of many adaptations that had evolved to promote crossing between individuals of the …
- … males and females of unisexual animals. Through extensive crossing experiments, and painstaking …
- … a number of other structures and behaviours that facilitated crossing, especially with the aid of …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 4 hits
- … the text. Orchids , which concentrated on the ‘means of crossing’, was seen by Darwin as the …
- … , which provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). …
- … before a disease-free variety of potato had been produced by crossing the most pest-free varieties …
- … self-fertilisation To demonstrate the advantages of crossing, Darwin presented the results …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … his own copy of the first edition of Origin neatly crossing through every occurrence of ‘natural …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the possibility of all organic beings occasionally crossing, & on the remarkable …
Floral Dimorphism
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Floral studies In 1877 Darwin published a book that included a series of smaller studies on botanical subjects. Titled The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, it consisted primarily of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … out of the meaning of heterostyled flowers. The results of crossing such flowers in an illegitimate …
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
- … to the action of external conditions, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 3 hits
- … or the Principles of Variation, Inheritance, Reversion, Crossing, Interbreeding, and Selection under …
- … on dimorphism and trimorphism and reported on a series of crossing experiments with orchids. Darwin …
- … [1867] ). Darwin was also interested in experiments crossing different species of orchids …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to study fertilisation (in particular the effects of crossing and of self-fertilisation); …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix VI). In addition to crossing varieties of Primula in 1863, he …
- … the two men discussed a multitude of botanical subjects, the crossing experiments that Scott had …
- … and he continued to observe individuals of the same species crossing with one another in a variety …
- … particularly when he was working on the chapter he called ‘Crossing & Sterility’ (see …
- … discussions, completing three sections, on inheritance, crossing and sterility, and selection, by …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … effect, on my memory.–– I remember, when going there crossing in the carriage a broad ford, & …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online
Summary
To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…
Matches: 1 hits
- … fertilisation , summing up many years of experiments on crossing plants. I wd gladly …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he collected. Travelling on from South America and crossing back half way round the world, …
