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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Axel Blytt   28 March 1876

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

March 28. 76

Dear Sir

I thank you sincerely for your kindness in having sent me your work on “The Immigration of the Norwegian Flora”, which has interested me in the highest degree. Your view, supported as it is by various facts, appears to me the most important contribution towards understanding the present distribution of plants, which has appeared since Forbes’ essay on the effects of the Glacial Period1

With much respect | and my best thanks | I remain dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

Footnotes

Blytt evidently sent his Essay on the immigration of the Norwegian flora during alternating rainy and dry periods (Blytt 1876). In it, he argued that alternating wet and dry periods played a large role in explaining the distribution of plants in Scandinavia; for a discussion of its significance to CD and others, see Lie 2008, pp. 166–9. Edward Forbes hypothesised that as the ice retreated at the end of the glacial period, Alpine plants continued to survive on mountain tops in the temperate zones (E. Forbes 1846).

Bibliography

Blytt, Axel. 1876. Essay on the immigration of the Norwegian flora during alternating rainy and dry periods. Christiania: Albert Cammermeyer.

Forbes, Edward. 1846. On the connexion between the distribution of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and of the Museum of Economic Geology in London 1: 336–432.

Lie, Thore. 2008. The introduction, interpretation and dissemination of Darwinism in Norway during the period 1860–90. In The reception of Charles Darwin in Europe, edited by Eve-Marie Engels and Thomas F. Glick. London: Continuum.

Summary

Thanks AB for his paper on the Norwegian flora ["Forsög til en Theori om Invandringen af Norges Flora", Nyt Mag. Naturvidensk. 21 (1876): 279–362]. Appears to CD to be the most important contribution towards understanding the present distribution of plants since Edward Forbes’s essay on the effects of the glacial period ["On the connexion between the distribution of existing fauna and flora of the British Isles and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. Engl. & Wales 1 (1846): 336–432].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10433
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Axel Gudbrand (Axel) Blytt
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen
Physical description
LS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10433,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10433.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24

letter