To Maxwell Tylden Masters 7 April [1860]
Summary
Much interested in MTM’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On the relation between the abnormal and normal formations in plants", Notes Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1860): 223–7].
Asks for information about crossing of varieties of peas. Describes his own experimental results: "the offspring out of the same pod, instead of being intermediate, was very nearly like the two pure parents; yet in one, there was a trace of the cross & the next generation showed still more plainly their mongrel origins".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
Date: | 7 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2749 |
To M. T. Masters 13 April [1860]
Summary
Discusses crosses in sweetpeas and the difference between monstrosities and slight variations. Discusses peloric flowers.
Thanks for correction about furze.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
Date: | 13 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 146 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2759 |
To M. T. Masters 25 April [1860]
Summary
Glad to hear of MTM’s papers [? "On a peloria and semidouble flower of Ophrys aranifera, Huds.", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 207–11 and "Observations on the morphology and anatomy of the genus Restio, Linn.", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 211–55].
CD doubts the value, for origin of species, of parallels between peloria in "distinct groups".
Gärtner proved the stigma can select its own pollen from a mixture of foreign pollens. But much evidence shows varieties of same species are prepotent over a plant’s own pollen.
MTM’s father [William] believes that variation goes on for a long time once it has commenced.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
Date: | 25 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | Shrewsbury School Archives (SR/Darwin box 1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4818 |