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To Thomas Rivers   23 December [1862]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Dec. 23d

Sir

I do not know whether you will forgive a stranger addressing you. My name may possibly be known to you.— I am now writing a book on the Variation of Animals & Plants under domestication; & there is one little piece of information, which it is more likely that you could give me, than any man in the world, if you can spare half an hour from your professional labours & are inclined to be so kind.2 I am collecting all accounts of what some call “Sports”, that is, of what I shall call “bud-variations”,3 ie a moss-rose suddenly appearing on a provence rose—a nectarine on a peach &c &c.— Now what I want to know, & which is not likely to be recorded in print, is whether very slight difference, too slight to be worth propagating, thus appear suddenly by buds. As every one knows in raising seedlings you may have every gradation from individuals identical with the parent, to slight varieties, to strongly marked varieties.— Now does this occur with buds? Or do only rather strongly marked varieties thus appear at rare intervals of time by buds? I shd. be most grateful for information.—4

I may add that if you have observed in your enormous experience any remarkable “bud-variations” & could spare time to inform me, & allow me to quote them on your authority, it would be the greatest favour. I feel sure that these “bud-variations” are most interesting to anyone endeavouring to make out, what little can be made out on the obscure subject of variation.

I hope that you will forgive the liberty which I have taken, & I remain, with much respect, Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

P.S. I have read with greatest interest your communication in the last G. Chron; & venture to express an earnest hope that they will be followed by others.—5

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to Rivers 1862 (see n. 5, below).
2
Rivers, who was a nurseryman, was the author of several books on the cultivation of roses and fruit-trees, and a regular contributor to gardening journals (DNB).
3
According to his ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix II), CD began working on a draft of chapter 11 of Variation, ‘On bud-variation, and on certain anomalous modes of reproduction and variation’ (Variation 1: 373–411), on 21 December 1862.
4
Rivers’s reply has not been found; however, see the letter to Thomas Rivers, 28 December [1862].
5
Rivers 1862. Rivers concluded his article (p. 1196): I have thus far given a portion of my experience in raising seedling fruits; if I have not carried the subject to a satiating length, I will continue a relation of my experiments with seedling Apples, Plums, Cherries, Strawberries, Rasberries, and Currants. Further articles by Rivers on seedling fruits appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1863 (pp. 27, 76, 244–5, and 364); CD kept the relevant numbers of the journal in separate parcels (see DAR 222 and DAR 75: 1–12; CD’s annotated copy of the Gardeners’ Chronicle is at the Cory Library, Cambridge Botanic Garden).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.

Rivers, Thomas. 1862. Seedling fruits. Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 20 December 1862, pp. 1195–6.

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

CD is collecting [for Variation] all accounts of what some call "sports" and what he calls "bud-variations". He asks whether very slight variations in fruit appear suddenly by buds, or whether only rather strongly marked varieties thus appear.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-3874
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Thomas Rivers
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Sotheby’s (dealers) (23–4 July 1987)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3874,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3874.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10

letter

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