To J. D. Hooker 3 November [1864]
Down Bromley Kent
Nov. 3d
My dear Hooker
Many thanks for your splendid long letter.1 But first for business.— Please look carefully at enclosed spec. of Dicentra thalictriformis2 & throw away: when plant was young I concluded certainly that tendrils were axial or modified branches, which Mohl says is case with some Fumariaceæ.—3 You looked at them here & agreed.—4 But now plant is old, what I thought was a branch with two leaves & ending in tendril, looks like a gigantic leaf, with 2 compound leaflets & terminal part converted into tendril. For I see buds in fork between supposed branch & main stem.— Pray look carefully, you know I am profoundly ignorant, & save me from a horrid mistake.—5
And now I must say a few words on the several & all interesting points in your letter.
Have you Ch. Martins on Sahara & can you lend it?6
I am quite delighted with what you say about H. Spencer’s book:7 when I finish each number I say to myself what an awfully clever fellow he is, but when I ask myself what I have learnt, it is just nothing. In the last number,, however, he hits a blot in the “Origin”8 but not in my rough M.S. viz no allusion to what the old physiologists call the nisus formativus.—9 I do not admire so much his style, & I think invariably 2 or 3 pages might be condensed into one.—
When I wrote to you I had not read Ramsay,10—how capitally it is written— it seems that there is nothing for style like a man’s dander being put up.— I think I agree largely with you about denudation—but the rocky lake-basin theory is the part which interests me at present.— It seems impossible to know how much to attribute ice,—running water, & sea.— I did not suppose that Ramsay would deny that mountains had been thrown up irregularly & that the depressions would become valleys.— The grandest valleys I ever saw were at Tahiti & here, I do not believe, ice had done anything—anyhow there were no erratics— I said in my S. American Geology that rivers deepen & the sea widens valleys,11 & I am inclined largely to stick to this, adding ice to water.— I am sorry to hear that Tyndall has grown dogmatic.12 H. Wedgwood13 was saying the other day that T.’s writings & speaking gave him the idea of intense conceit; I hope it is not so, for he is a grand man of science.
About the Red Cowslip, I said that it ought not to be called a species, unless it run wild, solely as the most severe test of sufficient constancy of character.—14
When I suggested Wallace for R. medal, I must confess I had obscure glimmering that it wd be difficult to state claims.15 His Amazon Book is nothing;16 his Nat. Selection would, I suppose, rather go against him with Royal Socy.17 I do not know whether his admirable paper before Linn. Socy. is published.18 He wrote one good paper on Geograph. Distribution19 & he has published Geographical papers;20 but I fear it would be impossible yet to make out good case. Talking of Geograph. Distrib. I have had a Prospectus & letter from Andrew Murray, asking me for suggestions!21 I think this almost shows he is not fit for subject, as he gives me no idea what his book will be, excepting that the printed paper shows that all animals & all plants of all groups are to be treated of!! Do you know anything of his knowledge.—
In about a fortnight I shall have finished, except concluding chapter, my Book on “Variation under Domestication”;22 but then I have got to go over the whole again, & this will take me very many months; I am able to work about 2 hours daily.
Thanks about Stanhopea, but I have at last set a capsule:23 my Stanhopeas flowered gorgeously, but I cannot make Acroperas & Gongoras flower, which I much wish for, as I believe Stanhopea has shown me the dodge for Acroperas which formerly so confounded me & John Scott.24 I grieve to hear about Mr M’Nab & him—25
Farewell forgive this awesomely long letter. Yours affectionately, | C. Darwin
I cannot buy at Veitchs,26 Coryanthes or Cycnoches,27 if you could propagate plants of both, or either, I shd. be pleased,—not that I suppose I shall ever publish my new matter on orchids.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
‘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.
Crüger, Hermann. 1864. A few notes on the fecundation of orchids and their morphology. [Read 3 March 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 127–35.
‘Fertilization of orchids’: Notes on the fertilization of orchids. By Charles Darwin. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [Collected papers 2: 138–56.]
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.
Journal of researches: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.
Lenoir, Timothy. 1982. The strategy of life. Teleology and mechanics in nineteenth century German biology. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.
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.
Martins, Charles Frédéric. 1864. Tableau physique du Sahara orientale de la province de Constantine. Paris.
Mohl, Hugo von. 1827. Ueber den Bau und das Winden der Ranken und Schlingpflanzen. Tübingen: Heinrich Laupp.
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
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.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Roe, Shirley A. 1981. Matter, life, and generation. Eighteenth-century embryology and the Haller–Wolff debate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
South America: Geological observations on South America. Being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1846.
Spencer, Herbert. 1864–7. The principles of biology. 2 vols. London: Williams & Norgate.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1853. A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an account of the native tribes, and observations on the climate, geology, and natural history of the Amazon valley. London: Reeve.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1859. On the zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago. [Read 3 November 1859.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 4 (1860): 172–84.
Summary
Asks JDH to verify an observation on Dicentra – what CD thought was a branch in the young plant now looks like a gigantic leaf in the old.
Concurs on Spencer’s clever emptiness.
Ramsay exaggerates role of ice. Sorry to hear that Tyndall grows dogmatic.
Admits difficulty of making case for Wallace’s Royal Medal at this time.
Will soon finish the first draft of Variation.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4650
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 253
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4650,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4650.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12