To Philip Lutley Sclater 30 August [1870]
Summary
Encloses, for publication, note about Pampas woodpecker, opposing W. H. Hudson [see 7354].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
| Date: | 30 Aug [1870] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.383) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7311 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … as a ‘woodpecker which never climbs a tree’ ( Origin , p. 184; see Hudson 1870 , p. 112, …
- … the open and undulating plains, at the distance of many miles from a tree. I was confirmed …
- … my belief, that these birds do not frequent trees, by the beaks of some which I shot being …
- … alighting on posts or branches of trees (where such grew) horizontally and crosswise, in …
- … it never visits woods, or climbs up trees, or searches for insects under the bark. He …
- … stony hills, where only a few bushes or trees grow, and may be continually seen feeding on …
- … are some woods, the Colaptes campestris climbs trees and bores into the bark like other …
- … it is sometimes found several miles distant from any trees. This, however, is rare, and it …
- … is on such occasions always apparently on its way to some tree in the distance. …
- … It here builds its nest in holes in trees. ’ ’I have not the least doubt that Mr. …
- … in stating that this species never climbs trees. But is it not possible that this bird may …
From William Swale 16 February [1870?]
Summary
Sends CD some notes on the habits of the "American Blight Bird" in New Zealand.
| Author: | William Swale |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Feb [1870?] |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 324 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7109 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … and very fond of ripe fruit when in season. In winter they fly in flocks from Apple tree …
- … to tree devouring the Aphis …
- … and cleaning the trees and all the carbuncles to all appearance but unfortunately the …
- … up the stem and branches from the bole of the trees during summer. Its little cranium is a …
- … I find a nest occasionally in a Peach tree which makes me think they must feed their young …
From W. W. Reade 24 April 1870
Summary
Sends insect that carries dead ants, dead leaves, etc., on its back, as protective imitation.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 37 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7172 |
From J. D. Hooker [31 May 1870]
Summary
Sends enclosure [a letter from Lady Lyell?]. He is choking with vanity.
Is going to send Willy to Mr La Touche in Salop; he brought up young Colenso and Frank Lyell. Some of his friends will think he is sending his son into a nest of young adders!
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [31 May 1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 46; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence 105: 236) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6964 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the other; not so, Pears & Apples, either trees or fruit. Sincerely Yours | Hewett C l . …
From Adolf Reuter 11 January 1870
Summary
Sends monstrous oranges,
red grape leaves,
and a bean with blue fruits (a hybrid of Phaseolus vulgaris and a Dolichos species).
| Author: | Adolf Reuter |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Jan 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 127 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7075 |
From St G. J. Mivart 25 April 1870
Summary
Apologises for saying more than was necessary in his previous letter. Although he feels gratitude and esteem for CD, he execrates those who use natural selection to oppose man’s higher interests and impede his advance. Has seen Huxley’s Man’s place in nature for sale among a crowd of obscenities at most Italian railway stations.
| Author: | St George Jackson Mivart |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 187 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7173 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Cynocephalus is the flying lemur. Mivart’s ‘trees’ were meant to show affinities between …
From J. J. Weir 27 June 1870
Summary
On behaviour of birds when frightened and when threatening.
Purple Cytisus grafted onto yellow stock produces some yellow flowers.
Mutations in rabbits.
Cites case of variegated leaf form of one plant apparently spreading to a neighbour.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 27 June 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 82 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7247 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Bibliography Bean, William Jackson. 1970–88. Trees and shrubs hardy in the British Isles. …
From St G. J. Mivart 22 April 1870
Summary
Is not prepared to express an opinion on man’s origin. On pure anatomical grounds he would form a family of the higher division of the primates, but if man’s intellectual, moral, and religious nature is considered, then "he differs more from an Anthropoid Ape than such an Ape differs from a lump of granite".
| Author: | St George Jackson Mivart |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 186 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7170 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Society of London ( Mivart 1867 ). There are tree diagrams in Mivart 1865 , p. 592, and …
From Charles Warren Stoddard 11 April 1870
Summary
Writes of some observations on the Sandwich Islands.
| Author: | Charles Warren Stoddard |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 258 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7163 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … will sprout, develop into a flourishing tree, blossom and give every promise of fruit in …
To J. J. Weir 29 June [1870]
Summary
On birds erecting feathers.
Comments on production of buds in Cytisus.
Discusses case of rabbit-breeding which affected subsequent progeny of female.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Jenner Weir |
| Date: | 29 June [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 327 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7253 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … there was some blunder. I am watching a tree in which the bud of C. purpureum died and …
From J. J. Weir 4 July 1870
Summary
On mutations in rabbits.
Cytisus case is not a double graft.
Aggressive behaviour of birds of prey.
| Author: | John Jenner Weir |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 July 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 83 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7264 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … own Gardener. — I particularly examined the tree to see if there was a chance of a double …
From Fritz Müller 29 March 1870
Summary
His observations on mimicry in butterflies
and self-sterility in plants.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Mar 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 76: B36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7150 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … than the later ones. I have since found, in a tree of C
〈 assia〉 multijuja, that the first …
From Jane Loring Gray 14 February 1870
Summary
About a dog she supposes was suckled by a cat, since it washes its face with its paws.
| Author: | Jane Loring Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Feb 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 80: 162–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7104 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … an age when I prefer dry roads & green trees & fresh turf! — Dr. Gray is busy as ever; & …
From Charles Boner 8 January 1870
Summary
Is glad CD liked Chamois hunting [in Bavaria (1853, 1860)].
Regrets CD’s poor health.
Sends his book, Transylvania [1865].
| Author: | Charles Boner |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 239 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7074 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … one who hitherto was as healthy as an oak tree, & for whom no fatigue was too great, to be …
From Edouard van Beneden 17 December 1870
Summary
CD has been nominated as a Membre Associé of the Belgian Royal Academy.
Discusses crustacean embryology; EvB is at variance with Dohrn.
| Author: | Édouard Joseph Louis Marie (Édouard) van Beneden |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 17 Dec 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 132 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7396 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to be able to construct the genealogical tree for this group. — I have not come to the …
From John Gage 19 October 1870
Summary
Convinced by CD’s Origin.
As a "student of spirit intercourse", he asks CD for more details about the scene of the dancing spoon in Journal of researches [p. 546].
| Author: | John Gage |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Oct 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7347 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … not to have partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good & evil. I want to know …
From William Winwood Reade [c. 8 or 9 April 1870]
Summary
Brief observations on expression in Africa.
Alexander Agassiz is a good investigator, who differs with his father on evolution.
The behaviour of women and savages is a little easier to understand than that of civilised men.
| Author: | William Winwood Reade |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [8 or 9] Apr 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7069 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ie near Kankan) which makes honey in holes of trees. It does not sting. I found a nest & …
From Ernst Haeckel 6 July 1870
Summary
Discusses applicability of evolutionary theory to the question of human origins.
Describes revisions in 2d edition of Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte.
His research on calcareous sponges.
Mentions evolutionary content in Gegenbaur’s Vergleichende Anatomie [2d ed. (1870)].
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 July 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 54 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7268 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and I believe that the genealogical trees of the various classes of animals are now …
| letter | (18) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (2) |
| Mivart, S. G. J. | (2) |
| Reade, W. W. | (2) |
| Weir, J. J. | (2) |
| Beneden, Édouard van | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (18) |
| Weir, J. J. | (3) |
| Mivart, S. G. J. | (2) |
| Reade, W. W. | (2) |
| Beneden, Édouard van | (1) |
Thomas Rivers
Summary
Rivers and Darwin exchanged around 30 letters, most in 1863 when Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript of Variation of plants and animals under domestication, the lengthy and detailed sequel to Origin of species. Rivers, an experienced plant breeder…
Matches: 4 hits
- … in Hertfordshire and a leading authority on roses and fruit trees. Darwin initiated the …
- … with detailed information about bud variation in fruit trees, strawberries, roses, and laburnum, and …
- … first read Origin, Rivers was led to consider the growth of trees over several years: how a patch of …
- … on the transmission of characters in weeping ash and thorn trees: “it is Capital for my Purpose”. …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 16 hits
- … ] Mr Coxe “view of the cultivation of Fruit trees in N. America [Coxe 1817].— in Library of …
- … 1835] (Gerard [Gérard 1844]) Fruit & Fruit Trees of America by A. Downing Wiley & …
- … at end April 13 th . Boutcher & Forsyth on Forest trees [Boutcher 1775 and Forsyth 1791 …
- … on œconomy of nature [Biberg 1759]. Barck on foliation of trees [Barck 1759]. Hasselgren on Swedish …
- … & Clarke [Lewis and Clark 1814] Boutcher & Forsyth on Forest Trees [Boutcher 1775 and …
- … 1845] skimmed. June 17 th . Downing Fruit & Forest trees of America [Downing 1845] …
- … p. 209 to 268.) 99 Great work by Decaisne on Fruit Trees. Le Jardin Fruitier [Decaisne …
- … a new method of cultivating and increasing all sorts of trees, shrubs, and flowers . Revised by …
- … 119: 2a Anon. 1839a. Loudon’s British trees and shrubs . Edinburgh Review 69: …
- … *119: 15v. Barck, Harald. 1759. On the foliation of trees. In Stillingfleet, Benjamin, ed., …
- … Boutcher, William. 1775. A treatise on forest trees . Edinburgh. 119: 7a, 13a …
- … William. 1817. A view of the cultivation of fruit trees . Philadelphia. *119: 4v. …
- … Downing, Andrew Jackson. 1845. The fruits and fruit trees of America . London. [Darwin …
- … Evelyn, John. 1664. Sylva, or a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber … To …
- … defects, and injuries in all kinds of fruit and forest trees. London. 119: 7a, 13a …
- … 1838. Arboretum et Fructicetum Britannicum; or the trees and shrubs of Britain, native and …
Visiting the Darwins
Summary
'As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating…' In October 1868 Jane Gray and her husband spent several days as guests of the Darwins, and Jane wrote a charming account of the visit in a sixteen-page letter to her sister. She described Charles…
Matches: 3 hits
- … shrubbery at one side, gravel walks, flower beds, nice trees with seats beneath them, & green …
- … shrubbery at one side, gravel walks, flower beds, nice trees with seats beneath them, & green …
- … lane, to see some old oak boles, almost as big as California trees in diameter, but only shells— Mr. …
Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson
Summary
[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…
Matches: 29 hits
- … where more than thirty feet above the sea, covered with palm trees and encircling a large shallow …
- … limits but all the Islets being covered with lofty coconut trees – they are for all intents or …
- … a half of its superfices - the remainder being covered with trees of other species of the class – …
- … of land around at an equal height by the tops of the coconut trees – As a white cloud here and there …
- … down to high water mark with green bushes and tall coconut trees – in the flat of coral rock nearly …
- … water, and at high tide – the leafy branches of the bushy trees particularly those of a willow …
- … the long arms (leaf branches or fronds) of the coco-nut trees as they waved in the evening breeze. …
- … more luxuriant than on any of the others – the coconut trees generally grow separate, but here the …
- … and curved fronds the most shady arbours, and overhead the trees occupied by numbers of gannets, …
- … which [ f.168r p.43 ] smoothly hovers about among the trees and every now and then comes …
- … glittering the sun – whilst around its borders the coconut trees stand with their lofty trunks – …
- … Sea and be caught by the Sharks – and by climbing the Coco trees befalling and breaking their necks” …
- … sand– in which the coconut tree and a few sorts of timber trees specially adapted to that soil only …
- … forest and jungles raise rice, sugarcane, pepper, and spice trees – at the same time preserving the …
- … – there are no mountains or rivers *[24] – few trees are visible white sandy patches, scrubby …
- … Sound, a thick wood was discovered in which there were many trees of considerable size – and in the …
- … walking to and fro with him in the shade of the coconut trees. A Peripatetic Academical mode, which …
- … were also allowed the produce of a certain number of coa-nut trees – and might catch fish and turtle …
- … husk the fruit on the spot – where it has fallen from the trees – which accordingly they do. Firmly …
- … issued a law of that description (in the case of the coconut trees) but I find that I had given him …
- … avenue of most elegant and magnificent orange and apple trees (these being in fact of the real …
- … that the greater part of the sea fowl roost on branches ^of trees^ and that many rats make their …
- … believe that “rats make their nests on the top of coconut trees at ninety to a hundred feet above …
- … “Besides the palm there are upon the larger Islets other trees particularly a kind of Teak – and …
- … opposite extract thus “There are upon the largest Islets trees of other sorts – particularly a kind …
- … to rear by cutting [ f.217v p.138 ] down the coconut trees and raising maize *[31] ) to the …
- … conception – being completely overshadowed by coconut trees and as a natural consequence swarming …
- … mosquitos is a natural consequence of the shade of Coconut trees” may not be deemed admissible by …
- … a certain Voyageur hath reported that “they ran up the trees and barked at him.” *[36] It …
Mauro Galetti: profile of an ecologist
Summary
Mauro Galetti solved Darwin’s puzzle of the ‘bright seeds’. This is what he told us about becoming an ecologist.
Benjamin Renshaw
Summary
How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended from apes? By the 1870s, questions like these were on the tip of everyone’s tongue, even though Darwin himself never posed the problem of human evolution in…
4.51 Frederick Holder 'Life and Work'
Summary
< Back to Introduction A popular biography of Darwin for young readers by the American naturalist Charles Frederick Holder, published in 1891, sought to present him as ‘an example to the youth of all lands’ (p. v). Thus ‘our hero’ was shown to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … cape can be seen a distant view of Down House amid its trees and gardens, with smoke rising from the …
Darwin’s earthquakes
Summary
Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…
Darwin on childhood
Summary
On his engagement to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1838, Darwin wrote down his recollections of his early childhood. Life. Written August–– 1838 My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approximately tell, and which must have been before…
Mendoza, Argentina
Summary
Geologising across the Andes
Matches: 1 hits
- … Andes and finds of fossil shells at 1200ft, and petrified trees. …
4.18 'Figaro' chromolithograph 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction In a cartoon of 1874 by Figaro’s French-born artist Faustin Betbeder (known as Faustin), Darwin holds up a mirror reflecting himself and the startled ape sitting beside him. Their hairy bodies, seen against a background of palm…
Matches: 1 hits
- … him. Their hairy bodies, seen against a background of palm trees, are made to look closely alike, …
4.3 Alfred Crowquill, caricature
Summary
< Back to Introduction One of the satires on Darwin’s Origin of Species was drawn by the prolific designer and illustrator Alfred Henry Forrester, who used the pseudonym ‘Alfred Crowquill’. His name appears prominently at bottom left of this print as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in human clothes. Above them, snakes coil round the trees while more monkeys cavort in the branches. …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees. * But he likewise believed in …
4.29 Richard Grant White, 'Fall of man'
Summary
< Back to Introduction At about the same time as The Hornet pictured Darwin as ‘A Venerable Orang-Outang’, a novella by the American journalist and critic Richard Grant White offered a more scurrilous take on The Descent of Man. The Fall of Man: Or,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … are shown embracing amorously, fighting or cavorting in trees. One wonders whether Darwin viewed …
Darwin’s species notebooks: ‘I think . . .’
Summary
I have lately been sadly tempted to be idle, that is as far as pure geology is concerned, by the delightful number of new views, which have been coming in, thickly & steadily, on the classification & affinities & instincts of animals—bearing…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In the first of the notebooks Darwin drew three trees. During the past few decades, one of these has …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 4 hits
- … vegetation springs up; but it has been observed that the trees now growing on the ancient Indian …
- … virgin forests. What a struggle between the several kinds of trees must here have gone on during …
- … to increase, and all feeding on each other or on the trees, or their seeds and seedlings, or on the …
- … course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on the old Indian ruins …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as a general rule, to be now forming. Where many large trees grow, we expect to find saplings. …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … houses are like what children make in summer, with boughs of trees.— I do not think any spectacle …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … as a general rule, to be now forming. Where many large trees grow, we expect to find saplings. …
