To J. D. Hooker 3 March [1877]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
March 3d
My dear old Friend
How kind it was of you to write.— Your note has pleased us beyond measure.2 I did not know how Frank would succeed in explaining himself; nor could I gather from his own account how far he had succeeded.3 So your note was most welcome. It has done him good & his manner since has been more completely than hitherto like his old manner.— But poor dear fellow no doubt it constantly crosses his mind that he has no sympathy when it wd have given him most joy.—4
The filaments from Dipsacus will have to be examined by other good workers; but I do not think that anyone cd see their spontaneous action & that under the most diversified stimulants or reagents, & doubt that they were formed of living matter.
Dyer’s objection in a note to Fr. today is the best, viz that protoplasm cd not pass through a cell-wall; but white blood corpuscles pass through the walls of vessels; & in a growing cell there must be protoplasm between the molecules of cellulose.—5
I have been working at the rich treasure of specimens & information which all you good botanists at Kew gave F. for me.—6
I received Moseley’s splendid collection of Photo’s all safe: it did not occur to me, but I ought to have acknowledged them.7
Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
Summary
CD counters Thiselton-Dyer’s objection to protoplasmic filaments of Dipsacus protruding beyond cell-wall, as Frank’s paper claims, by citing white "blood cells passing through vessels".
Has received Moseley’s collection of photographs.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10874
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 435–6
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10874,” accessed on 20 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10874.xml