To John Scott 20 [June 1863]1
Down
20th
Dear Sir
I am poorly & must be brief— I am glad to hear about your orchid paper; by all means let me have copy for Dr. Hooker.2 It would be quite worth while to show that Gregoria is dimorphic & that Cortusa has the structure of one form alone.—3 I can give you a M.S. short account of structure of pollen &c of Hottonia.—4 You will thus make a fairly complete, & anyhow sufficient, account of Primulaceæ.—5 I know nothing of the genera to which you refer.— I would make all this part brief.—
I shall be very glad if you have time to try peloric Gloxinias & Antirhinum; I have got both: I mean to try peloric on self & on common flower: & conversely with other forms; so that there will be 4 crosses.—6 I doubt whether Pelargonium worth the labour; I have tried many crosses & can get no certain result—7
Please save every capsule of the self-fertile variety of red cowslip with equal anthers & stamens; I shd. like to count the seeds in each capsule, if you do not yourself do it—8 In counting I find it safest plan to count all seeds, which are not manifestly bad; as this allows for partially unripe seed: of course it does not signify if same, as near as is possible, standard of goodness is used in all cases.—
Do not work too hard.—
Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Glad to hear of JS’s orchid paper [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50].
Suggests experiments on peloria.
Wants to count seed of the self-fertile red cowslip with equal stamens and styles.
Can send account of Hottonia.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4114
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Scott
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 93: B53–4
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4114,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4114.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11