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Darwin Correspondence Project

To J. D. Hooker   20 December 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Dec 20. 74

My dear Hooker

Mr J. G. Romanes is very eager to try experiments on Pangenesis.1 He is a clever & nice young man; a Nat: Sc: scholar & Prize Essayist of Cambridge.2 He wishes to try all sorts of experiments in bisecting buds & seeds, tubers &c, grafting &c so as to make graft hybrids. I find I have knowledge enough to advise him, & it has occurred to me that there may be some man at Kew who has had much experience in budding & grafting, & with a suggestive mind. I have told Romanes that you probably could not see him, but that if there was any likely man at Kew you would let him have an interview there, & tell the man to advise & suggest as far as he can.3 If you will let me have a single line, I will write to Romanes and he would come down to Kew & you could either see him or send him a message where to find the man

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

Romanes studied natural sciences at Cambridge University (ODNB). He had sent CD a copy of his Christian prayer and general laws (Romanes 1874), which won the Burney essay prize in 1873 (letter to G. J. Romanes, 16 December 1874 and n. 1).

Bibliography

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Summary

Asks JDH to help G. J. Romanes, who wishes to try Pangenesis experiment.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9766
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 95: 352–3
Physical description
LS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9766,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9766.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22

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