From Daniel Oliver 22 January 1863
Richmond, S.W.
22. 1. 1863
My dear Sir
You very greatly over-rate the labour of my Bibliography & yet more greatly extravagant is your notion as to my knowing many things.—1 Alas! I am dreadfully ignorant & my memory sadly imperfect.— Your suggestion about the sexes of water plants is interesting.2 In this relation it would be important to distinguish species the flowers of wh. expand under the surface,—& this wd. reduce the no. of “aquatics” very greatly. Crowfoot, Water-Lily, Utricularia, Vallisneria, Elodea & the like on the one hand—Naias, Zannichellia, Subularia (Cruciferae), Zostera &c. on the other.3 I should have liked to examine Subularia & thought about it before going down to the Lakes but saw none when there last time.
I am not aware that any sexual difference has been noticed in its flowers.4 Acct. wd. have to be taken of the Algae in such great preponderance submerged altogether,—fertilising of course by antherozoids. Some (as some Fuci) are monoecious & I fancy have both sexes in same conceptacle.5
My prospect of spare time keeps far off. Tomorrow eveng. (4 Fridays running) I have to lecture at Norwich (a thing you need not fear I shall get in to the habit of)6 On Saturdy. eveng. I have lectures to my class at U. College nearly done.7 I have undertaken to work up the botany of Amomums with Hanbury.8 the relations of Viscums &c to Gnetaceae I have to make up my mind about, &c. &c. &c.9
Very sincerely yours | Danl. Oliver.
Mr. Watson (of Ditton)10 sends me today some 2 score baby Brambles (seedling) to shew they are not the surpassingly rare things he thinks Mr. Bentham makes out (Linn. Socy. address./62)11
An obs. of mine in a Review of British Floras suggested his looking for them.—12
Footnotes
Bibliography
Babington, Charles Cardale. 1862. Manual of British botany, containing the flowering plants and ferns arranged according to the natural orders. 5th edition. London: John van Voorst.
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
Müller, Phillipp Jacob. 1861. Rubologische Ergebnisse einer dreitägigen Excursion in die granitischen Hoch-Vogesen der Umgegend von Gérardmer (Vogesen-Depart.–Frankreich). Bonplandia. Zeitschrift für die gesammte Botanik 9: 276–308.
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.
Summary
The number of "aquatic" flowers is reduced if one considers only those that expand under water.
Lecturing at Norwich.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3937
- From
- Daniel Oliver
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Richmond
- Source of text
- DAR 173: 19
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3937,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3937.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11