To G. J. Romanes 15 November 1880
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Nov. 15th 80
My dear Romanes
I have just read your article.1 As far as my judgment goes it is excellent & could not be improved.— You have skimmed the cream off the whole subject. It is also very clear.— One or two sentences near the beginning seem rather too strong; as I have marked with pencil, without attending to style.—2 I have made one or two small suggestions.— If you can find my account in Nature,* (last summer I think) about the hybrid Chinese-gees inter se, it wd be worth adding & wd. require only 2 or 3 lines.3 I do not suppose you wish to add but in my paper on Lythrum & I think requoted in Var. under Dom. Vol 2. 2d. Edit, bottom of page 167 I have a good sentence about a man finding 2 vars of Lythrum & testing them by fertility & coming to egregiously wrong conclusion.—4
I think your idea of reference to best books & short history of subject good.—5
By the way you have made me quite proud of my chapter on Hybridism; I had utterly forgotten how good it appears when dressed up in your article!!6
Yours very sincerly | Ch. Darwin
I have had a hunt & found my little article on Geese, which please hereafter return.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Romanes, George John. 1881b. Hybridism. EB 9th ed. 12: 422–6.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Comments on GJR’s article on hybridisation.
Recommends his article ["Fertility and hybrids from the Chinese and common goose", Collected papers 2: 219–20].
Discusses crosses of Lythrum.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12820
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- George John Romanes
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.575)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12820,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12820.xml