To J. D. Hooker 29 May [1863]
Down Bromley Kent
May 29th
My dear Hooker.
You have been uncommonly kind about Scott.1 I forwarded your note,2 but told him not to mention it; it will certainly be useful to him on any future occasion. For the same post that brought your note, brought one from him, with apologies & saying that Balfour had allowed him only 24 hours to decide, & being so pressed he had declined.3 I sent him a preaching about Mr Macnab, & I daresay he is to blame, & all that you say about permitting men to experimentise is very true.4 He certainly has tried a stupendous number. He told me formerly he did them out of work-hours.5 He is evidently an eccentric man; an orphan of parents who were better off & who took to gardening as best chance of some science.6 If he had leisure he would make a wonderful observer; to my judgment I have come across no one like him.—
Whether I have done right or wrong I know not, but I have urged him to publish on one little point, viz the impotence of certain orchids with their own pollen,7 like Herbert’s Crinum case.8 When I get his paper in some newspaper I will send it you to read; if it seems at all worth while.9 He has made lots of curious observations on pollen-tubes coming out of anthers in certain orchids & travelling all the way to the stigma.10
Many thanks for Nageli,11 which shall soon be returned: owing to subject & the German I cannot understand all; but there are some very important statements, enough to convince me that Falconer’s remark (which started me) on phyllotaxy being as fixed as law of gravity is much exaggerated:12 there is, however, no explanation, as far as I can understand, why angles jump from one to another.— I suppose you have seen Asa Gray on A. Decandolle & on Falconer &c &c in Silliman;13 he sent me 2 copies by mistake; but I presume you have one.— What a hard worker he is, & what a clever fellow: I wish this cursed war was over; if it were only to be at peace with him.—14
What a lot of gossip you told me in your last letter;15 I am so heartily glad that you appreciate John Lubbock: I always fear that he will wear himself out.—16
If you have time & care to look at a pretty case of fertilisation in Leguminosæ, (far prettier than in that strange-looking Clianthus) look at common Broom.17 It matures its pollen very early & you will see the pistil curled like a french horn out of the keel: I have seen two accounts that all this is for self-fertilisation.18 All this is a mistake; if insects are excluded the pistil does not come out. When a bee alights to suck, the short anthers first protrude & rub & dust the under side of its thorax: then when the bee pushes harder or flies to an older flower, out flies the pistil & long anthers & strike (as as I have seen) the upper surface of thorax, where the stigma is well rubbed with its own pollen & that brought from other flowers; but here comes the pretty part, as soon as Bee flies away the pistil from its elasticity curls so much as to almost touch the shorter protruded anthers; & the stigma is now turned upwards & rubs against the under side of the thorax of the next bee dusted with pollen from many flowers. I never saw a clearer case of adaptation.— Subsequently the pistil curls uselessly still more.—19
Have you read Kinglake?20 I am reading it with much amusement.
Good-night— | Ever yours | C. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Ferris, Norman B. 1977. The Trent affair: a diplomatic crisis. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press. [Vols. 9,10,11]
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1978. Charles Darwin: a companion. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Herbert, William. 1837. Amaryllidaceæ; preceded by an attempt to arrange the monocotyledonous orders, and followed by a treatise on cross-bred vegetables, and supplement. London: James Ridgway & Sons.
Kinglake, Alexander William. 1863–87. The invasion of the Crimea: its origin, and an account of its progress down to the death of Lord Raglan. 8 vols. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons.
Nägeli, Carl Wilhelm von. 1858–68. Beiträge zur Wissenschaftlichen Botanik. 4 pts in 1 vol. Leipzig: Wilhelm Englemann.
Summary
CD’s encouragement of John Scott, who has found a case of self-incompatibility in orchids, like William Herbert’s in Crinum.
Nägeli on phyllotaxy.
CD’s observations on broom fertilisation.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4191
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 195
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4191,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4191.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11