From W. E. Darwin [18 June 1866]1
Southampton
Monday.
My Dear Father,
I send you the 3 kinds of Buckthorn.2 I went to the place yesterday, and marked some shrubs, there seemed about as many female trees, as there were of the other two put together As soon as I have examined pollen etc of the two I will let you know.
Your affect son W E Darwin
CD annotations
Top of letter: ‘[Abord ] | abort [ovules] | [fms]’ red crayon 3
Verso: ‘barely [altho looks] beautifully [impressive] | or 12–13/7000 middle sp p’ pencil 4
Footnotes
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to W. E. Darwin, 19 [June 1866]. In 1866, 18 June was the Monday before 19 June.
William had promised to send specimens of the different flowers produced by Rhamnus cathartica (buckthorn) from the Isle of Wight (see letter from W. E. Darwin, [7 May – 11 June 1866] and n. 3). William and CD initially thought that the species might have hermaphrodite, as well as male and female forms; however, they later determined that the plant had two male and two female forms (see letter to W. E. Darwin, 19 [June 1866] and n. 4, and letter from W. E. Darwin, 20 June [1866] and n. 6).
CD described the partially aborted pistil in the male flowers of Rhamnus cathartica in a note dated 19 June 1866 in DAR 109: A41. See letter to W. E. Darwin, 19 [June 1866] and n. 4.
These annotations refer to the size in inches of pollen-grains in the different flower forms of Rhamnus cathartica. See letter to W. E. Darwin, 22 June [1866].
Summary
Sends some specimens of three kinds of buckthorn.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5109
- From
- William Erasmus Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Southampton
- Source of text
- DAR 109: A70
- Physical description
- ALS 1p †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5109,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5109.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14
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