To J. D. Hooker [early December 1856]1
[Down]
My dear Hooker.
Will you return this to me. with any remarks?—2
A more curious case is offered by Podostemon, which Dr. Hooker informs me flowers with its corolla closed in the rocky beds of the rapid torrents of the Himalaya. From the habits of the Family to which it belongs, it probably never flowers in the open air; & as the corolla is closed it seems impossible that there should ever be a cross between two individuals.3
But Lindley (Veg. Kingdom p. 482)4 says the flowers of the species of the Family of Podostemaceæ are usually hermaphrodite, & as he says all the species are submersed it would appear (without there be some error) that there must be some means in the mono- or diœcious species, of the pollen being carried under water from flower to flower.—5
Can you illuminate me? For this in my present state of ignorance seems the strongest case of “Darwin, an eternal & necessary hermaphrodite”.—6
I send directed envelope to give as little trouble as possible—
Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lindley, John. 1846b. The vegetable kingdom. London: the author.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
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.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1974
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 205.5: 213
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1974,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1974.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6