From Francis Darwin [after 14 November 1881]1
My dear Father
Many thanks for Pfeffers two letters; the first shows a very nice spirit but is very obscure; the second one I can understand nearly all of I am extremely glad he believes in the sensitive tips.2 Also that he disagrees with Wiesner about the way external conditions act.3 I think he must have forgotten how impossible it is to discover from his works that he (Pfeffer) agrees with us.
I have had a pleasant letter from Elfving wanting very much to know what we think of Wiesner. Elfving says he always felt doubtful about the sensitiveness of tips to gravity or of tips of cotyls to light. He thinks what Wiesner says about light generally is “pure bosh” and shows him to be as Sachs says “Ein Esel”4 I shall be very glad to get to work on the antiWiesner experiments. I send back the translation of Pfeffer No 2 & have the translation safe. I will send you Elfvings letter I havn’t got it with me just now.5
I am rather astonished at Sir John’s letter as I never suggested to him as he says that the Feganites might rent it.6 They have evidently got on his soft side by offering £10 instead of £6.
The fishing has been no good either floods or gales of wind up stream so that you cant throw a fly
I shall certainly be back on the 26th or 27th. I wrote a letter to Bessy at Lurgan7 which I am afraid was too late I thought she wouldn’t start in that gale.
I think the pitcher with roots will be very nice to microscope8
I have had all my abstracts for the Jahresbericht translated by a German lady in London recommended by Williams & Norgate9 | Yr affec | F D
Ubbadub is enough admired here to suit even you10
Footnotes
Bibliography
Darwin, Francis. 1880a. On the power possessed by leaves of placing themselves at right angles to the direction of incident light. [Read 16 December 1880.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 18 (1881): 420–55.
Darwin, Francis. 1881b. Ueber Circumnutation bei einem einzelligen Organe. Botanische Zeitung, 29 July 1881, pp. 473–80.
Wiesner, Julius. 1881. Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. Eine kritische Studie über das gleichnamige Werk von Charles Darwin nebst neuen Untersuchungen. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.
Summary
Thanks for two letters from Pfeffer. Will return translation of Pfeffer and send a letter from Elfring. Looking forward to working on "antiWiesner" experiments. Will return on 26th or 27th.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13485F
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Source of text
- DAR 274.1: 68
- Physical description
- ALS
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13485F,” accessed on 25 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13485F.xml