To John Smith 26 December [1867]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Dec. 26th
Dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for your note on crossing the Victoria regia, received a few days ago from Dr. Hooker.—2
I very much hope that you feel sufficient interest in the subject to try some more experiments; for if you obtained anything at all like the same result, the case would be extremely curious.— There is, I feel sure, very much to be made out about the fertility of plants when fertilised by their own pollen.—3
With many thanks, for your interesting communication, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.
Summary
CD is obliged for a note by JS on crossing the Victoria regia, just received from Hooker; encourages JS to further experiments, saying there is much to be learned on self-fertilisation of plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5740
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Smith
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5740,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5740.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15
