To J. D. Hooker 22 October 1881
66 Hills Road | Cambridge
Oct 22d. 1881.
(Home on 27th.)
My dear Hooker
We are staying for a week with Horace here in Cambridge, as I much wanted a change & rest.1 Now I am going to bother you or Dyer, if the latter has returned. I sadly want the plants in enclosed list.2 I tried to get a Papaw but failed from Veitch, where I got Nepenthes Dionæa & some other plants.3 I am investigating the action of Carbonate of Ammonia, on chlorophyll, which makes me want the plants in my list.4 I have incidentally, observed one point in Euphorbia, which has astonished me, viz that in the fine fibrous roots of Euphorbia, the alternate rows of cells in these roots must differ physiologically, though not in external appearance, as their contents after the action of Carbonate of Ammonia differ most conspicuously.5
(Now for another subject: Dr. King writes that he has dispatched a very fine specimen of Dischidia Rafflesiana in spirits to me, & he sends a drawing & extract from Wallich.— What an extraordinary case it seems to be: from what Dr. King says & the drawings it looks as if the plant manufactured little pitchers of manure-water, so that its roots might be nourished by the contents.—6 Now I have not, of course, histological knowledge enough to undertake the examination of the minute structure of these pitchers, & do you know of any one with knowledge enough who wd like to undertake the work: always supposing that the work has not already been done. If no one else wd do so, perhaps Frank would; but he likes physiological work, more than morphological work.—7
Please observe that we return home on Thursday 27th, so that if you can send me any plants, they ought not to be despatched before that day.— Ever my dear Hooker | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
P.S. | Wiesner of Vienna has just published a book, vivisecting me in the most courteous, but awful manner, about the “Power of Movement in Plants”.—8 Thank Heaven he admits almost all my facts, after retrying all my experiments; but gives widely different interpretations of the facts.— I think he proves me wrong in several cases, but I am convinced that he is utterly erroneous & fanciful in other explanations. No man was ever vivisected in so sweet a manner before, as I am in this book.—
Pray give my kind farewell to Asa Gray & I thank him for the card received just as we were leaving home.—9
[Enclosure]
(Young Papaw tree, (but with roots)
(Sarracenia— a single leaf or pitcher wd. do, if not old & sent damp in tin-box.— Or I could return plant.—)
(Drosophyllum— a very small plant wd suffice & I could return it.)
(Any one or 2 or 3 Euphorbiaceous plants, except Euphorbia & Phyllanthus both of which I possess.— I fear that Pointsettia hardly differs from Euphorbia, otherwise this wd. do for one: I bought seeds of Pointsettia, but not one germinated.10
Footnotes
Bibliography
‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll’: The action of carbonate of ammonia on chlorophyll-bodies. By Charles Darwin. [Read 6 March 1882.] Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany) 19: 262–84.
‘Action of carbonate of ammonia on roots’: The action of carbonate of ammonia on the roots of certain plants. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 March 1882.] Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany) 19: 239–61.
Insectivorous plants 2d ed. By Charles Darwin. Revised by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1888.
Shephard, Sue. 2003. Seeds of fortune: a gardening dynasty. London: Bloomsbury.
Treub, Melchior. 1883. Sur les urnes du Dischidia Rafflesiana Wall. Annales du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg 3: 13–36.
Wallich, Nathaniel. 1830–2. Plantæ Asiaticæ rariores; or, descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants. 3 vols. London, Paris, and Strasbourg: Treuttel and Würtz.
Wiesner, Julius. 1881. Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen. Eine kritische Studie über das gleichnamige Werk von Charles Darwin nebst neuen Untersuchungen. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.
Summary
Visiting his son Horace.
Studying action of carbonate of ammonia. Finds similar looking Euphorbia root cells react differently.
Intrigued by Dischidia rafflesiana, whose pitchers manufacture manure-water that nourishes adventitious roots. Does JDH know histologist for detailed study?
Julius von Wiesner’s criticism of Movement in plants "vivisects" CD in "a most courteous but awful manner" [Das Bewegungsvermögen der Pflanzen (1881)].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13420
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 538–41
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13420,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13420.xml