To Asa Gray 19 April [1865]1
Down Bromley Kent
April 19th
My dear Gray
I have not written for a long time (& a good job too perhaps you will think), not since receiving your letter written on Jany 19th;2 but I have often thought of you & often wished to write, but either had other things to do, or felt too tired. I have nothing particular to say now, but the grand news of Richmond has stirred me up to write.3 I congratulate you, & I can do this honestly, as my reason has always urged & ordered me to be a hearty good wisher for the north, though I could not do so enthusiastically, as I felt we were so hated by you.—4
Well I suppose we shall all be proved utterly wrong who thought that you could not entirely subdue the South. One thing I have always thought that the destruction of Slavery would be well worth a dozen years war.5 Two days ago a very charming man, enthusiastic for the north, called here, Mr. Laugel, & he does not believe that you will attack us & Canada.6 I fear it will take many years before your country will shake down to its old routine.—
I received a little time ago a paper with good account of your Herbarium & Library,7 & a long time previously your excellent review of Scotts Primulaceæ, & I forwarded it to him in India, as it would much please him.—8 I was very glad to see in it a new case of Dimorphism (I forget just now the name of plant);9 I shall be grateful to hear of any other cases, as I still feel interest on subject. I shd. be very glad to get some seed of your dimorphic Plantagos;10 for I cannot banish suspicion that they must belong to the very different class like that of the common Thyme. How could the wind, which is agent of fert. with Plantago, fertilise “reciprocally dimorphic” flowers like Primula.11 Theory says this cannot be, & in such cases of one’s own theories I follow Agassiz & declare “that Nature never lies”.12 I shd even be very glad to examine the 2 dried forms of Plantago. Indeed any dried dimorphic plants wd. be gratefully received. You made capital remarks, with respect to Mohls little imperfect flowers, on flowers which rarely open—13
Did my Lythrum paper interest you?14 I crawl on at rate of 2 hours per diem with Variation under Domestication;15 & I have begun correcting proofs of my paper on “Climbing Plants”. I suppose I shall be able to send you a copy in 4 or 5 weeks. I think it contains a good deal new & some curious points, but it is so fearfully long, that no one will ever read it. If, however, you do not skim through it, you will be an unnatural parent, for it is your child16
Believe me, my dear Gray, | Yours affectionately | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Autobiography: The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882. With original omissions restored. Edited with appendix and notes by Nora Barlow. London: Collins. 1958.
‘Climbing plants’: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. [Read 2 February 1865.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 9 (1867): 1–118.
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Colp, Ralph, Jr. 1978. Charles Darwin: slavery and the American Civil War. Harvard Library Bulletin 26: 471–89.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Crook, David Paul. 1975. Diplomacy during the American Civil War. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Denney, Robert E. 1992. The civil war years: a day-by-day chronicle of the life of a nation. New York: Sterling Publishing.
‘Dimorphic condition in Primula’: On the two forms, or dimorphic condition, in the species of Primula, and on their remarkable sexual relations. By Charles Darwin. [Read 21 November 1861.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 6 (1862): 77–96. [Collected papers 2: 45–63.]
Dupree, Anderson Hunter. 1959. Asa Gray, 1810–1888. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
McPherson, James M. 1988. Battle cry of freedom: the Civil War era. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Mohl, Hugo von. 1863. Einige Beobachtungen über dimorphe Blüthen. Botanische Zeitung 21: 309–15, 321–8.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
‘Two forms in species of Linum’: On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation, in several species of the genus Linum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 5 February 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 69–83. [Collected papers 2: 93–105.]
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Congratulates AG on the "grand news of Richmond".
Still interested in dimorphism and would welcome new cases.
Working on Variation
and correcting proofs of Climbing plants.
Would like seed of AG’s dimorphic Plantago.
Cannot understand how the wind could fertilise reciprocally dimorphic flowers.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4467
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Asa Gray
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (77)
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4467,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4467.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13