To Asa Gray 14 July [1856]
Summary
Asks whether Allegheny Mountains are sufficiently continuous so that plants could travel from north to south along them.
Hopes AG’s work on geographical distribution is progressing, as he has questions on plants common to Europe which do not range up to Arctic.
Are intermediate varieties less numerous in individuals than the varieties they connect?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 14 July [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1926 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Asks whether Allegheny Mountains are sufficiently continuous so that plants could travel …
- … Gray, Asa. 1842. Notes of a botanical excursion to the mountains of North Carolina, &c. ; …
- … of Mount Oconee (now called Stratton Mountain) in South Carolina in Bartram 1791 , p. …
- … reading a paper by you on plants on mountains of Carolina, (in London Journal of Botany) …
- … on the botany of the higher Alleghany mountains. In a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker. London …
- … M ts . ,—not that I know where these Mountains are. — How does your memoir on Geograph. …
To Asa Gray 11 August [1858]
Summary
Species migration since the Pliocene. Effect of the glacial epoch. Present geographical distribution, especially similarities of mountain floras, explained by such migration; mountain summits as remnants of a once continuous flora and fauna.
Cross-fertilisation in Fumariaceae.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 11 Aug [1858] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (42 and 9a) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2321 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Present geographical distribution, especially similarities of mountain floras, explained …
- … by such migration; mountain summits as remnants of a once continuous flora and fauna. …
- … arctic productions slowly crawled up the mountains, as they became denuded of snow; & we …
- … rose, all the temperate intruders would crawl up the mountains. Hence the European …
- … Nilgherries, Ceylon, summit of Java—Organ Mountains of Brazil. — But these intruders being …
- … to compete: hence most of the forms on the mountains of the Tropics are not identical but …
To Asa Gray 25 April [1855]
Summary
Is collecting facts on variation; questions AG on the alpine flora of the U. S.
Sends a list of plants from AG’s Manual of botany [1848] and asks him to append the ranges of the species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 25 Apr [1855] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1674 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Indig. ” for such as are confined to the mountains of the U.S. — “Arctic Am. ” to such as …
- … Arctic Europe:—& “Alps” to those found on any mountains of Europe. —“& Arct. Asia” I have …
- … alpine plants cannot grow, separates these mountains: I can hardly judge from the height …
- … being marked on the prolongation of the mountains of Vermont. — I venture to ask for one …
To Asa Gray 21 [and 22] January 1878
Summary
Thanks for AG’s review of Forms of flowers [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 15 (1878): 67–73].
Thomas Carlyle’s letter about CD was a forgery.
Gives Hermann Müller’s observations on Valeriana dioica.
Is unsure about function of "bloom"; are glaucous plants more or less common in arid parts of U. S.?
Observations on heliotropism.
Thomas Meehan reports that Linum perenne is self-fertile; CD thinks that he has mistaken the species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 21 and 22 Jan 1878 |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (123 and 127) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11330 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … heard prodigies of your strength & activity. That you run up a mountain like a cat! — …
To Asa Gray 8 June [1855]
Summary
Suggests AG append ranges to the species in the new edition of his Manual.
Is interested in comparing the flora of U. S. with that of Britain and wishes to know the proportions to the whole of the great leading families and the numbers of species within genera. Would welcome information on which species AG considers to be "close" in the U. S.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 8 June [1855] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1695 |
To Asa Gray 27 November 1876
Summary
Thanks for a correction. Hopes AG now has all the sheets of Cross and self-fertilisation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 27 Nov 1876 |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (114) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10688 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of Dr Parry’s collection in the Rocky Mountains’ ( A. Gray 1862c ), and ‘Structure and …
To Asa Gray 25 February [1864]
Summary
Has not worked for six months due to illness.
Has been looking at climbing plants.
Hermann Crüger’s paper shows that CD was right about Catasetum pollination. Crüger’s account of pollination of Coryanthes "beats everything".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 25 Feb [1864] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4415 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Dana’s article ‘On the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains as time-boundaries in geological …
To Asa Gray 17 February [1878]
Summary
Heterostyly in Linum perenne. Believes the American form may be a distinct species.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 17 Feb [1878] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (129) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11364 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of their botanical tour of the Rocky Mountains (see L. Huxley ed. 1918, 2: 205–15). In …
To Asa Gray 7 January [1860]
Summary
Comments on AG’s memoir on Japanese plants [see 2599]; relationship of Japanese flora to N. American.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 7 Jan [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (15) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2645 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … country is on the west side of the Rocky Mountains: nor of course do I know whether the …
To Asa Gray 26 November [1860]
Summary
Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.
Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.
Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 26 Nov [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (27) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2998 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … evidence of glaciation in the Lebanon mountains (Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 591–2). See also …
To Asa Gray 29 November [1857]
Summary
Thanks AG for his criticisms of CD’s views; finds it difficult to avoid using the term "natural selection" as an agent.
Discusses crossing in Fumaria and barnacles.
Has received a naturally crossed kidney bean in which the seed-coat has been affected by the pollen of the fertilising plant.
Finds the rule of large genera having most varieties holds good and regards it as most important for his "principle of divergence".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 29 Nov [1857] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (18) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2176 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … been turned out together on the Cumberland Mountains, & one particular breed is found to …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he wrote to Darwin about a local girl living in a mountain town on the island of Tenerife. …
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
Matches: 3 hits
John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
4.40 'Phrenological Magazine'
Summary
< Back to Introduction Among the stranger uses of Rejlander’s photograph of Darwin (the very popular profile view) was as an illustration in Lorenzo Niles Fowler’s Phrenological Magazine of 1880; it accompanied an article titled ‘Charles Darwin – A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and off-hand, and acts on the spur of the moment.’ The ‘mountain of Firmness’ over his ears makes …
Frances Power Cobbe
Summary
Cobbe was born in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at home, at Newbridge House, county Dublin, except for two years at a school in Brighton: she hated the school. After she left, she kept house for her mother and father, and after her mother's death for…
Matches: 1 hits
- … referred to her in a letter to Darwin as a 'disenchanting mountain of flesh'. Cobbe, …
Monte Sarmiento
Summary
Peaks in Tierra del Fuego
Matches: 1 hits
- … Fitzroy sends mountain heights in Tierra del Fuego. …
Books on the Beagle
Summary
The Beagle was a sort of floating library. Find out what Darwin and his shipmates read here.
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … volcanic phenomena in South America; and on the formation of mountain chains and volcanos, as the …
Darwin and barnacles
Summary
In a letter to Henslow in March 1835 Darwin remarked that he had done ‘very little’ in zoology; the ‘only two novelties’ he added, almost as an afterthought, were a new mollusc and a ‘genus in the family Balanidæ’ – a barnacle – but it was an oddity. Who,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … at the same low tide, resembles a miniature volcanic mountain range extruded by the rock itself, and …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
4.22 Gegeef et al., 'Our National Church', 2
Summary
< Back to Introduction The second version of Our National Church. The Aegis of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was commissioned by the freethinker, radical and secularist George Jacob Holyoake. It was published by John Heywood of Manchester and London…
Matches: 1 hits
- … version of the print was published, and is now raised to the mountain top, the highest point in the …
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … admirer was old Peter Hailes the bricklayer, & the tree the Mountain Ash on the lawn. All …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … research into contemporary theories of volcanic activity, mountain formation, and the elevation of …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Interview with Emily Ballou
Summary
Emily Ballou is a writer of novels and screenplays, and a prize-winning poet. Her book The Darwin Poems, which explores aspects of Darwin’s life and thoughts through the medium of poetry, was recently published by the University of Western Australia Press.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … just the beginning of light. William dove off the mountain cascading into blue vapour, …
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…
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … migrated through the tropical regions near the equator along mountain ranges – these would have …
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…
