From W. E. Darwin [April–May 1865]1
Southampton
Monday.
My Dear Father,
I enclose Camera outlines of the 3 sorts of pollen. I think the pollen of the red Longstyled & of the yellow Longstyled are as nearly of the same size as anything can be.2
The only difference I can see is that the Red Longstyled have a good many more sterile than the Y. Long S. and they are much more markedly sterile. If you would send me some more flowers of the 2 kinds, I would make outlines more carefully of the sterile-looking ones, & try & see roughly the comparative proportions in each, that is to say if it would be any use.
I find Rhamnus will not be in flower till well into May.3
We have still got this heavenly weather, & everything has come slick into leaf in the last 4 days
I should like to hear what Horace thinks of School.4
Your affect son | W E Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Specific difference in Primula’: On the specific difference between Primula veris, Brit. Fl. (var. officinalis of Linn.), P. vulgaris, Brit. Fl. (var. acaulis, Linn.), and P. elatior, Jacq.; and on the hybrid nature of the common oxlip. With supplementary remarks on naturally produced hybrids in the genus Verbascum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 19 March 1868.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 10 (1869): 437–54.
Summary
Sends camera outlines of pollen. Thinks the red longstyled ones are more sterile than the yellow.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4506F
- From
- William Erasmus Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Southampton
- Source of text
- Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 20)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4506F,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4506F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)