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Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. D. Hooker   21 [July 1866]

Down.

21st

My dear H.

If you can name enclosed, I shall be grateful. By gardening books I conclude it is L. hirsutus; according them it cannot be L. pilosus.—1 The standard is often reddish purple instead of white. I sent to nursery garden, whence I bought seed,2 & could only hear that it was “the common blue Lupine” The man saying “he was no scholard & did not know Latin & that parties who make experiments ought to find out the names.—”

Yours affect | C. Darwin

He might have added & not trouble their friends.

Footnotes

CD was interested in the species of Lupinus, subsequently identified by Hooker as L. pilosus (letter from J. D. Hooker, [24 July 1866]), as illustrating the difficulty of crossing papilionaceous flowers (see second letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle, [before 11 August 1866]).
No record of the purchase of lupin seed has been found. CD often obtained specimens and seed from the nursery firm of James Veitch (see Correspondence vol. 13).

Bibliography

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

Summary

Asks help in naming a lupin, enclosed. Nurseryman said parties who make experiments should find the names. He might have added "and not trouble their friends".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-5162
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 115: 293
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5162,” accessed on 26 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5162.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14

letter