To Charles Alexander Johns 13 August [1868?]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E. [Freshwater]
Aug 13.
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your note; but I am sorry to say that I am not botanist sufficient to form a judgment on the specimen which you have sent.2 I do not quite understand whether you suppose that the variety is the result of hybridism or of the present peculiar summer, but in any case I shd think it wd be well worth observing.
The thought had not occurred to me, but I dare say this very hot summer will have a marked effect on some British plants in their struggle for life. I am aware that this is a subject to which you have for many years attended, for I remember quoting from you a statement regarding the number, chiefly I think of leguminous plants, which you were able to cover under the circumference of your hat.3
With my thanks for your kindness in writing to me, I remain Dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
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.
Summary
CD not a good enough botanist to form a judgment of specimen. Does not understand whether CAJ supposes the variety to be a result of hybridism or of the present very hot summer, which CD cannot doubt will have an effect on some British plants in their struggle for life.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6312
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- C. A Johns
- Sent from
- Freshwater Down letterhead
- Source of text
- Mitchell Library, Sydney (A27 p. 60)
- Physical description
- LS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6312,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6312.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16
