skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Scott   11 June [1863]1

Down

June 11th

Dear Sir

As the Abstract has not yet appeared in G. Chron. I sent your corrected copy to Dr. Hooker with the M.S. note on closing of stigma.—2

Dr. Hooker is evidently struck with your observations, & my sending these papers has produced the effect, which I hoped for as probable; for Dr. Hooker says “If I hear of anything at all likely to suit him, I will bear him in mind. If he is a good cultivator, the best place for him is in a good liberal orchid-growers garden like Mr Ruckers”.3 He adds “it is a pity he should throw away his papers on the Bot. Soc. of Edinburgh”. This last sentence you must keep private; & indeed, I would advise you the whole.—

Dr. Hooker thinks that if it is known that you agree at all with my views on species, it is enough to make you unpopular in Edinburgh; so you had better keep your views pretty quiet.—

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the reference to the letter from J. D. Hooker, 10 June 1863.
An abstract of Scott’s paper on the pollination of orchids (Scott 1863a), read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh on 14 May 1863, appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 13 June 1863, p. 558. CD refers to a corrected copy of the abstract published in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 28 May 1863, p. 8, which he had forwarded to Joseph Dalton Hooker, together with the enclosure to the letter from John Scott, 21 May [1863] (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 [June 1863]).

Summary

Hooker is impressed by JS’s MS on closing of stigma.

He will help find him a position. Hooker says if it is known that JS agrees with CD’s views, he will be unpopular in Edinburgh.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-4212
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Scott
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 93: B22–3
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4212,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4212.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11

letter