From William Erasmus Darwin [late February–May 1865]
Summary
[Outline sketches of pollen from short-styled yellow primrose and from long-styled yellow and red primroses.]
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [late Feb–May 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 108: 89a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4729 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Outline sketches of pollen from short-styled yellow primrose and from long-styled yellow …
- … Oxlips’ added red crayon Verso : ‘Size of Pollen in long-styled Red Primrose’ pencil ; ‘ …
- … 3 and 5, below. This sketch of the pollen-grains of Primula vulgaris under magnification …
- … forms part of a series of diagrams of the pollen of Primulaceae made by William in the …
- … plants’ , p. 421, CD described the pollen of the red (purple) long-styled primrose as ‘of …
- … William made this observation after the pollen from the red long-styled primrose was sent …
- … 19 May 1864]). CD believed that differences in pollen size and in the size of some flower …
- … may have intended to use the data on primrose pollen in his ongoing investigation into the …
From William Allport Leighton 29 May 1865
Summary
Describes the floral structure of the lupin and gives his observations on its pollination by bees.
| Author: | William Allport Leighton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 May 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 76: B95–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4840 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … 3 rds . the length of the pistil— the pollen of their anther-cells is mature and is even …
- … the length of the pistil. Moreover their pollen is not ready and their anther-cells are …
- … the stigma I could not discover that as yet, any pollen was deposited on it. Nor did the …
- … difference in the size or form of the pollen grains of the two sets of anthers. Now if we …
- … relative length with the pistil—that their pollen has fallen & the anther cells & the …
- … their upper portions entirely covered with pollen—all trace of the anther cell having …
- … The stigma also is now observed to have pollen grains on it. When the blossoms were thus …
- … fertilisation was inevitable, and that the pollen was in ‘enormously greater quantity’ …
- … a slight downward movement in the closed keel, whereby the pollen was extruded through the …
- … apex, and that the extruded pollen coming in consequence into contact with the body of the …
- … What becomes of the immense quantity of pollen of the large sagittate anthers? It can …
From W. E. Darwin [April–May 1865]
Summary
Sends camera outlines of pollen. Thinks the red longstyled ones are more sterile than the yellow.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [Apr–May 1865] |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 20) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4506F |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Sends camera outlines of pollen. Thinks the red longstyled ones are more sterile than the …
- … Southampton Monday. My Dear Father, I enclose Camera outlines of the 3 sorts of pollen. …
- … I think the pollen of the red Longstyled & of the yellow Longstyled are as nearly of the …
- … difference in Primula ’ . William drew the pollen of these plants using a camera lucida …
To Max Ernst Wichura 3 February [1865]
Summary
He has finished MEW’s work on hybrid willows [Die Bastardbefruchtung im Planzenreich (1865)] and sends his thanks. The extreme frequency of hybrid willows is new to CD, and he finds the explanation of their numbers in certain locations ingenious.
Comments on the criticism of Gärtner’s view of reversion
and the differences between MEW and Naudin.
CD now has doubts regarding his own view that hybrids are sterile from not being perfectly accommodated to their conditions of life.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Max Ernst Wichura |
| Date: | 3 Feb [1865] |
| Classmark: | Autographia (dealers) (1986) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4765A |
Matches: 7 hits
- … und künstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Pt 1 of Beiträge zur Kenntniss der …
- … read your account of the development of pollen-grains in hybrids. I see you doubt Gärtner’ …
- … irregularities in the development of hybrid pollen-grains, see Wichura 1865 , pp. 32–40, …
- … above), Emma wrote for pages 38 and 39, ‘pollen gets worse & worse in offspring of Hybrids …
- … 871–3). Wichura’s discussion of irregular pollen-grains included those in plants that were …
- … Plants which vary have often irregular pollen— I think some connexion between sterility & …
- … Wichura’s observations of irregular pollen-grains. Wichura suggested that the reversions …
To J. D. Hooker 13 April [1865]
Summary
Strelitzia has arrived
but no books or bottles from G. H. K. Thwaites.
Hopes his own judgment about Origin is as good as Hooker’s about his own papers.
Strelitzia’s neat mechanism for exposing pollen.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 13 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 266 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4813 |
From George Henslow 6 November 1865
Summary
Pleased CD confirms his observations on Salvia.
Spring action of Medicago stamens described.
| Author: | George Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Nov 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 151 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4931 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … insects then carried the pollen to other flowers, thereby effecting cross-pollination ( …
- … present) more effectually to sweep out the pollen, & so elevate on the outside of the two …
- … of Salvia pratensis , which enabled pollen to be transferred from different flowers on the …
- … contraction of the stamens and the consequent extrusion of pollen from the anthers; the …
To [Robertson Munro?] 3 February [1865 or 1866?]
Summary
Is glad MTM is going to experiment on Passiflora.
Is grieved to hear that John Scott has been inaccurate but cannot think he recorded, in his paper, experiments that he never made [see 4485].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robertson Munro |
| Date: | 3 Feb [1865-6] |
| Classmark: | DAR 96: 16 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4763 |
From John Scott 10 April 1865
Summary
Comments on CD’s Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31]
and on H. Crüger’s orchid paper [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 127–35].
May take position at Calcutta Botanic Garden.
Regrets he cannot be elected to Linnean Society.
Pleased Asa Gray has commented on JS’s paper.
| Author: | John Scott |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Apr 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 115 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4810 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … I cut from the column in inserting the pollen-masses. This is further illustrated by the …
- … I invariably found that a sufficiency of pollen-tubes were developed, showing us that the …
- … reside innately, & independently in the pollen. I should have liked if Dr. Cruger had …
- … portion of the style through which the pollen tubes pass from the stigma to the ovules. …
To Asa Gray 19 October [1865]
Summary
AG’s article on climbing plants [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 40 (1865): 273–82] is admirable and complimentary.
Reports Fritz Müller’s observations on climbers.
Experiments on dimorphism with Mitchella and Pulmonaria.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 19 Oct [1865] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (93) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4919 |
To James Philip Mansel Weale 6 May [1865]
Summary
Sends advice on naturalist matters.
W. H. Harvey’s work [with Wilhelm Sonder, Flora capensis (1859–65)],
and Robert Brown’s publication ["On the organs and mode of fecundation in Orchideae and Asclepiadeae", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 16 (1833): 685–745].
Writes of having seen in S. America a Hymenopteran with tarsi covered with pollen-masses of Asclepias.
Interested in JPMW’s researches in South American caverns.
Mentions poor health.
Thanks for tracings.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Philip Mansel Weale |
| Date: | 6 May [1865] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.308) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4828 |
From L. C. or Margaret Susan Wedgwood to [Emma Darwin?] [May 1865]
Summary
Sends some figures on long- and short-styled primroses for "Uncle Ch".
| Author: | Lucy Caroline Wedgwood; Lucy Caroline Harrison; Margaret Susan Wedgwood; Margaret Susan Vaughan Williams |
| Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
| Date: | [May 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 108: 74 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4823 |
From J. D. Hooker 24 December 1865
Summary
Oliver says H. E. Baillon found stamens on female flowers of Coelebogyne, but JDH and many botanists have never found any stamens.
Lyell wants to propose JDH for Copley Medal.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Dec 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 51–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4955 |
From J. D. Hooker [23] December 1865
Summary
No one believes in Karsten.
Surprised by CD’s observations that illegitimate crosses within a species produce hybrid-like offspring.
JDH’s scepticism of Scott’s observations.
On proposing James Hector vs Julius von Haast for Royal Society; on learned society honours.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [23] Dec 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 47–50 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4954 |
From B. D. Walsh 29 May 1865
Summary
Discusses several subjects, including examples of "Unity of coloration",
the origin of gall-producing poison,
Wagner’s theory of viviparous larvae,
and stridulation in insects.
Sends a reference supporting CD’s statement in Origin that flies check propagation of horses and cattle.
| Author: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 May 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 179, 179a; DAR 207: 18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4839 |
From J. D. Hooker [10 March 1865]
Summary
Thomas Thomson has gone over Scott’s paper; encloses his conclusions. Not fit for publication in present form. His experiments should have been repeated to resolve his disagreement with Gärtner.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [10 Mar 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 13–14 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4782 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … und künstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Pt 1 of Beiträge zur Kenntniss der …
To Fritz Müller 17 October [1865]
Summary
Is sending FM’s two letters on climbing plants as a paper to the Linnean Society ["Notes on some of the climbing plants near Desterro, in south Brazil", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1867): 344–9].
Adaptations for pollination in Catasetum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Date: | 17 Oct [1865] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 3) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4916 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the pollinium to eject and forcing the pollen masses onto the insect. Crüger sent CD …
From George Henslow 2 December 1865
Summary
Has been writing a review of CD’s "Climbing plants" for Popular Science Review [5 (1866): 55–65].
| Author: | George Henslow |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Dec 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 152, 152/1 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4944 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … using force with their jaws’, could carry pollen from one Crocus flower to another of the …
From George Stewardson Brady 19 March 1865
Summary
CD’s statement in Origin that clover is utterly dependent on humble-bee for fertilisation has been questioned by his friend’s evidence of visits by other insects. Asks CD’s opinion.
| Author: | George Stewardson Brady |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 276 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4790 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the operation of piercing the corolla, any pollen adhering to the proboscis of an insect …
To J. D. Hooker 1 June [1865]
Summary
Bad month of sickness. John Chapman’s ice bag on spine.
Does not quite agree with JDH about Lubbock’s plagiarism charges. Lyell’s memory must have failed him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 June [1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 269, 269b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4846 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … I bought a plant & fertilised it with own pollen & every seedling is peloric as enclosed …
From J. D. Hooker [2 June 1865]
Summary
JDH on the Lyell–Lubbock plagiarism controversy. His view of the true cause of Lubbock’s behaviour.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [2 June 1865] |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 24–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4849 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … pollinating the peloric plant with its own pollen were peloric. See letter from J. D. …
| letter | (23) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (2) |
| Henslow, George | (2) |
| Scott, John | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Munro, Robertson | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (22) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (2) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Henslow, George | (2) |
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: 15 hits
- … male flowers on separate plants) and also noted that their pollen differed in size and shape. He …
- … of Primrose & Cowslip with short pistils & large-grained pollen are rather more fertile …
- … of my experiments lead me to suspect that the large-grained pollen suits the long pistils & the …
- … I think I have made out their good or meaning clearly. The pollen of A is fitted for stigma of B …
- … both terms referred to the fertilisation of one form with pollen from the same form. At this late …
- … two forms and that one of these was absolutely sterile with pollen from the same form, while the …
- … explained to Gray, ‘ I have lately been putting the pollen of the two forms on the division of the …
- … me as truly wonderful, that the stigma distinguishes the pollen; & is penetrated by the tubes of …
- … he told Hooker, ‘ In function, but not in appearance, the pollen of these two forms, as tested by …
- … is so frequent in truly hermaphrodite groups; namely the pollen & stigma of each flower being …
- … of the plant, with dotted lines indicating which pollen must be applied to each stigma to produce …
- … He told Gray in October 1865 that with respect to its own pollen, the long-styled form was …
- … plants raised from Dimorphic species fertilized by their own pollen, are themselves generally …
- … in a few specimens. It is necessary to compare size of pollen grains & state of stigma ’. …
- … ‘I will rank no plant as dimorphic without comparing pollen-grains & stigmas’. When Hermann …
Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 11 hits
- … fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy, and …
- … 5 July 1873 Darwin wrote again, saying: ‘The power of pollen in exciting the skin & mucous …
- … changes in his own symptoms, that he was able to single out pollen as the only credible cause. …
- … He also experimented with fresh, dry and extracts of pollen, administered to his nose, mouth, eyes …
- … writes: Perhaps where grass is cut & dried; some pollen of the entomophilous division …
- … was fascinated by Blackley’s experiments testing whether pollen could be carried large distances in …
- … p. 5). Darwin gave a further example of how coniferous pollen could be carried for hundreds of miles …
- … with carbolic acid to deter insects. He concluded that in pollen seasons much higher levels were …
- … from hay fever in large cities far away from sources of pollen. In his later work, possibly …
- … Blackley tried to find out the smallest amount of pollen that would initiate and maintain the …
- … recommending spending summers in suitable locations to avoid pollen. But his lasting contribution …
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: 20 hits
- … flowers and the physiological effects of different forms of pollen. Although many plants that Darwin …
- … many of these were nevertheless fertile with their own pollen. He set out to compare several …
- … of the young plants when raised from a pistil fertilized by pollen from the same flower, & from …
- … that Darwin would confirm that this poppy shed its pollen immediately after the flower opened, …
- … since even those flowers to which he applied foreign pollen had probably already been self …
- … on which he commented, ‘This complete infertility with own pollen could hardly have remained …
- … you w d care, is that a great excess of, or very little pollen produced not the least difference …
- … On the other hand seeds from this plant, fertilised by pollen from the same flower, weigh less, …
- … beginning to suspect that the insects which could transfer pollen in sweet peas simply did not exist …
- … mignonette ( Reseda odorata ) was absolutely sterile with pollen from same plant in spite of the …
- … there sh d be some difference in ovules & contents of pollen-grains (for the tubes penetrate …
- … the same plant!’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 21 May [1868] ) Pollen tubes, or rapidly elongating vegetative …
- … ovary of a flower; they are triggered to elongate when the pollen touches the stigmatic surface. …
- … at the lessened fertility when he pollinated plants using pollen from other plants of the same …
- … the early part of the flowering season quite sterile with pollen from the same plant, though fertile …
- … as adults forever fixed in close proximity to others, so pollen from widely separated flowers could …
- … stylar forms of flowers, Darwin had referred to unions where pollen from one form had been applied …
- … that some forms were absolutely sterile with their own pollen while others had varying degrees of …
- … Ernst Haeckel, ‘It is really wonderful what an effect pollen from a distinct seedling plant which …
- … forms of flowers that showed sterility could exist when pollen from one form was applied to the same …
A fly on the flower: From Hermann Müller, 23 October 1867
Summary
In March 1867, Hermann Müller, a young teacher of natural sciences at a provincial Realschule (a type of secondary school that emphasised the natural sciences) in Lippstadt in the Prussian province of Westphalia, sent Darwin two papers on the mosses of…
Matches: 4 hits
- … order to observe their adaptations for collecting nectar and pollen. A letter he wrote in October …
- … of the hoverfly mouthparts that are specially adapted for pollen eating. Müller’s discovery seemed …
- … as pseudotracheae), which were the perfect size for holding pollen grains. He further noted, having …
- … in different species, depending on the size of the pollen eaten by each type of fly. It is amazing …
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…
Essay: Evolutionary teleology
Summary
—by Asa Gray EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY When Cuvier spoke of the ‘combination of organs in such order that they may be in consistence with the part which the animal has to play in Nature,’ his opponent, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, rejoined, ‘I know nothing of…
Matches: 14 hits
- … meaning. One good illustration of it is furnished by the pollen of flowers. The seeming waste of …
- … ’ which every one has heard of. Myriads upon myriads of pollen-grains (each an elaborate organic …
- … a violet, in which there are not many times more grains of pollen produced than there are of seeds …
- … other flowers also, provided with a large surplus of pollen, and endowed (as the others are not) …
- … to certain insects, which are thereby induced to convey this pollen from blossom to blossom, that it …
- … of which are committed to insects, the likelihood that much pollen may be left behind or lost in the …
- … in orchis-flowers is accounted for by the fact that the pollen is packed in coherent masses, all …
- … against it when it sucks nectar from the flower, and so the pollen will be bodily conveyed from …
- … case, that of pine-trees, the vast superabundance of pollen would be sheer waste if the intention …
- … ’ as the means, no one is entitled to declare that pine-pollen is in wasteful excess. The cheapness …
- … involved in similar difficulty. The superabundance of the pollen of pine-trees above referred to, …
- … In the analogous instance of willows a diminished amount of pollen is correlated with direct …
- … difference in the conveyance would reduce the quantity of pollen produced. It is, we know, in the …
- … work and material; but why should it begin to produce less pollen? But this is as nothing compared …
Orchids
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A project to follow On the Origin of Species Darwin began to observe English orchids and collect specimens from abroad in the years immediately following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Examining…
From morphology to movement: observation and experiment
Summary
Darwin was a thoughtful observer of the natural world from an early age. Whether on a grand scale, as exemplified by his observations on geology, or a microscopic one, as shown by his early work on the eggs and larvae of tiny bryozoans, Darwin was…
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
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: 5 hits
- … puzzles me.— The Fly-Ophrys seems hardly ever to get its pollen masses moved at all, & the …
- … agency—another part, namely the natural falling out of the pollen-masses, being adapted for self …
- … in which I ask for information on what kinds of moths the pollen-masses of Orchids have been found …
- … Hooker, ‘ I shall never rest till I see a Catasetum eject pollen-masses, & a Mormodes twist its …
- … not only because of its remarkable ability to eject its pollen masses like a catapult, but also …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Fool's experiments
Summary
‘I love fools' experiments. I am always making them’, was one of the most interesting things the zoologist E. Ray Lankester ever heard Darwin say. ‘A great deal might be written as comment on that statement’, Lankester later recorded, but he limited…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to Lankester involved placing under a bell jar some pollen from a male flower together with, but …
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: 4 hits
- … whereby each form achieved the highest fertility only with pollen from the other two forms. The …
- … collecting and measuring flower parts, drawing pictures of pollen-grains, stigmas, and anthers, and …
- … writing on 14 April [1864] , ‘I can do as much pollen work as ever you like’. Comments on William’s …
- … Crüger confirmed both his observation of Catasetum pollen adhering to a humble-bee’s back, …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
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…
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … fertility of orchids he has self-pollinated and crossed with pollen of other species. …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 3 hits
- … He discusses how dipterous insects are adapted to eating pollen rather than only to sucking nectar. …
- … flowers. One is ripening. Dissection of the other shows the pollen accomplishes fertilisation …
- … interpretation of Acropera pollination is ingenious. Pollen-tubes of some cleistogamous flowers …
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: 4 hits
- … . ‘I will rank no plant as dimorphic without comparing pollen-grains & stigmas’, Darwin …
- … and painstaking measurements of the size and number of pollen-grains, Darwin compared the fertility …
- … especially with the aid of insects: the size and shape of pollen-grains, the position of stigmatic …
- … life to which all organisms are subjected, by producing both pollen and seeds’ ( Forms of flowers …
A tale of two bees
Summary
Darwinian evolution theory fundamentally changed the way we understand the environment and even led to the coining of the word 'ecology'. Darwin was fascinated by bees: he devised experiments to study the comb-building technique of honey bees and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … is, depressing the keel so that the mechanism which caused pollen to be deposited on the bee would …
