From Asa Gray [10–16] June [1863]1
Cambridge. [Mass.]
June ⟨ ⟩
My Dear Darwin,
I am kept distracting⟨ly⟩ busy. So look for nothing of any use from me yet a while
Your Ohio case of law against marrying of cousins, I put to my neighbor, Prof. Parsons, who had it looked up.2 He tells me there is no such law at all on the Ohio Statute-books—nor is there a trace of any law on the subject to be found in the laws of any State in U.S. He doubts if there can really be any statistics which tell on the point, because 1. the marriage of 1st cousins is a rare thing in this country.— 2. the U.S. decennial Censuses do not afford any information on the matter.— 3. Nor any of the ⟨states’⟩ Census that he knows ⟨of.⟩
Campanula perfoliata seed I am trying to procure for you.3
Phloxes.4 Last spring Dr. Torrey5—who has been examining Polemoniaceæ—told me that—the stamens remaining the same—some species have long styles, and other nearly related species short styles. I suggested dimorphism,—but he said they varied also in the no. of ovules. I have wished to look at Phloxes in this light—being confident that this means dimorphism.— But no wild ones grow in this region. Perhaps I can get seed from the West.—
Engelmann is the only reliable man,—probably because he is very busy.6 I shall ask him. As I have lately been taking trouble for him, he will probably reciprocate.
Pray dont run mad over phyllotaxis! I can’t save you, I am sure.7
George’s ‘Converging sines’ is the same, perhaps, as what Bravais was after. His memoir may help you. (See Bot. Text Book, p. 141, par. 248)8 Or, if you want something thoroughly mathematical, consult Neumann, of Berlin, in some paper—which I have no reference to.9
I have never meddled with this mathematical stuff. Hooker is quite mistaken.10 But Prof. Peirce (our mathematical Prof. did so years ago, but ran off into the sky, dementedly—for which folly see Agassiz Contrib. vol. 1.—11 It is not by me now.
—Oh, I see what Hooker was referring to. See the last pages of Proceedings of the American Association for the advancement of Science, 1849, vol. 2.12
You ask me for copy of article on De Candolle—on species.—13 Why, I posted a copy to you—at the time, and you seem to refer to it. Do you mean to ask for a 2d copy. But my copies are exhausted quite.
If yours failed, I will try to get the sheets for you.— I dare say I can do so.
Never had I so much work to do in the University—lecturing & teaching all the while.14 It quite uses me up.
I am sorry you do not give a better account of yourself. Be careful, and do not work too hard
Ever Yours | A. Gray
Footnotes
Bibliography
Agassiz, Louis. 1857–62. Contributions to the natural history of the United States of America. 4 vols. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown & Company. London: Trübner.
DAB: Dictionary of American biography. Under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. 20 vols., index, and 10 supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; Simon & Schuster Macmillan. London: Oxford University Press; Humphrey Milford. 1928–95.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Dupree, Anderson Hunter. 1959. Asa Gray, 1810–1888. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Gray, Asa. 1849. On the composition of the plant by phytons, and some applications of phyllotaxis. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; second meeting, held at Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 1849, pp. 438–44.
Naumann, Karl Friedrich. 1842. Uber den Quincunx, als Grundgesetz der Blattstellung im Pflanzenreiche. Annalen der Physik und Chemie 2d ser. 56: 1–37.
Naumann, Karl Friedrich. 1845. Ueber den Quincunx als Grundgesetz der Blattstellung vieler Pflanzen. Dresden and Leipzig: Arnoldische Buchhandlung.
Royal Society catalogue of scientific papers: Catalogue of scientific papers (1800–1900). Compiled and published by the Royal Society of London. 19 vols. and index (3 vols.). London: Royal Society of London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1867–1925.
WWWA: Who was who in America. A companion to Who’s Who in America. 9 vols., historical vol., and index. Chicago: A. N. Marquis. 1943–89.
Summary
Possible dimorphism in Phlox.
Knows of no U. S. law prohibiting marriage of cousins.
Gives references to papers on phyllotaxy.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4198
- From
- Asa Gray
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Cambridge Mass.
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 136
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp damaged
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4198,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4198.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11
