From Richard Trevor Clarke 6 November [1866]1
Dear Mr Darwin
As some good matter appeared in our first number of the new issue of the RHS transactions on the subject of hybridism I shall have to say my word in the second;2 my object in writing to you is to know if you would mind my publishing my observation on the change of colour in Matthiola seed produced by pollen agency before germination. Having sent it to you to add to your collection of facts I would not publish it now unless entirely agreeable to you—3
Naudin and Vichura’s observations are good & interesting, especially the “loves of the Willows”, highly confirmatory, but new, no.4 I have not a scrap of novelty for you this season,—any more than the Frenchman.
I have been making some splendid cross bred cottons, but I fear the posterity will not come up to the first crosses always vigorous and good vide also Vichura.5
The Oriental Gossypia will not cross with Barbadense.—6
Very truly yrs | R Trevor Clarke
Welton Place
Novr 6th
Sea Island cottons7 are dimorphous occasionally, style sometimes exserted, beyond anthers, sometimes covered; no concomitant phenomena yet observed.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Naudin, Charles Victor. 1864. De l’hybridité considérée comme cause de variabilité dans les végétaux. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences 59: 837–45.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Wichura, Max Ernst. 1865. Die Bastardbefruchtung im Pflanzenreich erläutert an den Bastarden der Weiden. Breslau: E. Morgenstern.
Summary
Wants to publish his observation on colour changes in Matthiola seeds.
Has been crossing cotton.
Approves of C. V. Naudin and Max Wichura.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4932
- From
- Richard Trevor Clarke
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Daventry
- Source of text
- DAR 161: 163
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4932,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4932.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14