From Francis Darwin [12 July 1878]1
Botanisches Institut
My dear Father
I cut sections of an oat 3 mm above the ground & it was about as green as the 5 mm one. Sachs couldn’t exactly say whether it could assimilate, but it would want light to fully develope its chlorophyll just as much as it wants light to make starch out of its perfect chlorophyll.2
I have been round the hot houses & plants out side 2 or 3 times & have found some sleepers we have not had, but no new principle—3 I will look at them all again & describe them better to you.
Cassia baccata 4 leaflets which turn outside in like our Cassia
| Adenantha pavonina | (Legumin) Leaflets drop & turn edgwise ie not quite outside in— | |
| Tamarindus indicus— | leaflets shut upwards | |
| Bauhinia Richardiana | (Leg) 2 large leaflets—drop | |
| Ligophyllum Guaiacum— | has joints & ought to shut like Arachis but is v. unhealthy | |
| Indigofera tinctoria | } | leaflets drop simply |
| " Tejsmanni | ||
| Edwardsia chrysophylla | sleeps like Mimosa but I dont know whether 2ndy petioles close up. | |
| Albizzia lophantha | I think we had only the generic name was different. It sleeps pretty much like Mimosa | |
| Oxalis floribundus | } | like Acetosella |
| —"— Regnilli |
also O vespertilionis which has odd leaflets so
O rusciformis has leaflike foot-stalks but no little leaves at the end I am not sure yet whether it sleeps.4
I am nearly sure Gossypium sleeps, simply dropping the leaf downwards— several more Acacias & Coesalpinas I have only seen in the day.5
Besides my wood experiments which are rather failures but now today I have at last got a good method Sachs has set me at climbing plants he wants to prove that tendrils & twisters behave in the same way— But I must write you a letter about that alone He thinks de Vries has not cleared everything up— The fact is as Sachs says himself Sachs has never worked at twiners himself & has not thoroughly gone into the mechanical problems6
Please thank Bessy for her very nice letter—& tell her & mother I will write a real letter tomorrow7
Yr affc son | F Darwin
☞ Please send me the address of the American Printing Machine Semper has writers palsy in his right hand & thought they cost more than £20 or he would have got one before.8
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Climbing plants 2d ed.: The movements and habits of climbing plants. 2d edition. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Chlorophyll development in oat seedling.
Lists the sleeping plants he has seen.
Julius Sachs thinks Hugo de Vries has not cleared up everything [about climbing plants]. But Sachs has not worked on the mechanical problem.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11604
- From
- Francis Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Botanisches Institut Würzburg
- Source of text
- DAR 209.1: 156–7, DAR 209.14: 88
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11604,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11604.xml
