To J. D. Hooker 5 April [1867]
Down
Ap. 5th
My dear H.
C. Nägeli writes to me that he has worked hard for 4 years on Hieracium to show causes & manner & steps of variation,—hybridism &c &c, & I shd. think from a very long letter that his results were valuable.1 Now he wants me to get for him a complete set of British forms & will give in exchange a large set of German & Alpine forms.— Is there not some one in England who has made a special study of this genus?— If you cannot advise me better, should I apply to Babington (if he is well again) or to H. C. Watson??2
I am sorry to trouble you,—mere name & address wd suffice.—3
Yours affect | C. Darwin
[Enclosure 1]
In Annales du Museum Tom. X. p. 471— A new genus of Umbelliferæ is described, Drusa, said to be confined to the Canary Isld.— the pericarp is furnished with elegant stellate hooks (see Plate at p. 456). Now this seed must have been developed or formed when mammals existed to transport it, ie not in Canaries.4 Do you at all agree??
Copied from ancient notes of mine.—
[Enclosure 2]
(I possess old good note from Lowe on the very different soil of P. Santo compared with Madeira (& on proportion of endemic plants in P. Santo) so that some plants which grow in latter will not grow in P. Santo.—)5
(You remember, of course, Watson’s paper in Hooker J. of Bot. on the changes which some Azorean plants underwent when cultivated in England.—)6
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Summary
C. Nägeli’s long letter on his four years of work on Hieracium appears to be valuable. Nägeli wants a set of British forms in exchange for German ones.
Sends note on a new genus of Umbelliferae (Drusa) in Canaries; speculates on origin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5488
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 94: 14–16
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5488,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5488.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15
