To J. D. Hooker 25 September 1868
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Sep 25 1868
My dear Hooker
You will remember the reiterated & incredible accounts of oats converted into barley & wheat. A Mr Dunn sent me thro’ Huxley a photograph of an ear of wheat apparently with 2 florets of the oat growing out of it. I answered that the specimen was not worth an old straw unless soaked to see if there had been any trick or accidental insertion, & unless examined by some well-known botanist.1 He has now generously given me the specimen which he evidently values much, & is convinced there has been no trick. As under these circumstances I felt nearly sure you wd examine it I have sent it by this post registered in a box. One of the glumes has fallen off & is put separately in paper.. I shd add that a stupid farmer took out of the lower floret, as Mr Dunn says, a perfect oat seed. If these florets have not been inserted or accidentally entangled, the case is wonderful; but of course I do not know whether the 2 florets have the real character of any variety of the oat. If not a true oat it is an odd case of bud-variation or disease.2 Should there be no deception I hope you will publish an account & a figure & I wd get further details, but I quite expect that it will all turn out humbug.
yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin
Let me have a line, as I must write to Mr Dunn.—
PS. We shall be delighted to see Harriet with you or sooner. Mrs. Hooker must consider that she owes us a visit as she cannot come now—3
P.S. I have read Berkeleys address in Gard. Chronicle. It is tremendous on me.— I do not think it looks nice to write to a man too thank him for praising one.4 But if you have at any time to write to him, & can remember, pray say with entire truth, that I was deeply gratified by what he said.
Praise from such a man is something to remember.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Sends an ear of wheat with two florets of oats growing out of it. Expects it will all turn out a humbug.
Berkeley’s address in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1868): 920, also Rep. BAAS 38 (1868): 83–7] praises CD tremendously.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6393
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 94: 93–5
- Physical description
- LS(A) 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6393,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6393.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16