To W. H. Harvey 24 December [1856]1
Down Bromley Kent
Dec. 24th
My dear Sir
Dr. Hooker2 thinks you would not grudge giving me a little bit of information; I want only so much as would go in the compass of a short note.— It regards the higher marine plants, of which the male & female elements of reproduction are pretty clearly made out.— Are such plants generally or universally dioecious, or monoecious, or hermaphrodite in the sense that the male & female organs are so close together that the male element & of the same individual would apparently always fertilize the adjoining female, as appears to be the case (whether or not really) in common hermaphrodite phanerogams.—3
Can you answer this question? If so I shd be very much obliged for an answer at your leisure.— I have long been interested in following out Andrew Knight’s notion that all plants occasionally cross with another individual.—4
I was very glad to hear some time ago of your safe return after your long voyage.—5
When last I saw you it was at Oxford, & the remembrance of that very pleasant week to me, often recurs to my memory.—6
Pray believe me, My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Knight, Thomas Andrew. 1799. An account of some experiments on the fecundation of vegetables. [Read 9 May 1799.] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 89: 195– 204.
Thuret, Gustave Adolphe. 1854–5. Recherches sur la fecondation des Fucacées, suivies d’observations sur les anthéridies des Algues. Annales des sciences naturelles (botanique) 4th ser. 2: 197–214; 3: 5–28.
Summary
W. J. Hooker thinks Harvey will be willing to give information on reproduction of higher marine plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2021F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Henry Harvey
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Swann Auction Galleries (dealers) (21 April 2011)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2021F,” accessed on 19 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2021F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)