To John Maurice Herbert 2 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks JMH for book of poems.
Recalls early days together. He cannot visit due to health.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Maurice Herbert |
Date: | 2 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.121) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1814 |
To W. D. Fox 3 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks WDF for his help and reports on progress in "the Cock and Hen line of business". Has written to every quarter of the world for skins of poultry and pigeons.
As for seeds, Hooker and Bentham obstinately refuse to believe they can live even a few years in the ground.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 86) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1815 |
To John Stevens Henslow 3 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks for JSH’s letter, which has been of real use.
Complains of the trouble caused by reports to Government required of Benefit Clubs.
Interested in case of Canada geese with seed in crop, because means of distribution is now a great hobby.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A106–A107 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1816 |
To John Davy 3 January [1856]
Summary
Delighted to hear that JD’s research is continuing. CD has heard that JD’s paper will at last be published. He is flattered by the form [as a letter addressed to CD] of communication. [See 1651a and 1819a, published in Phil. Trans. R. S. 146 (1856): 21–9 and Proc. R. S. London 8 (1856–7): 27–33.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Davy |
Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | David Schulson (dealer) (Catalogue 61, 1991) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1816A |
From Edward Blyth 8 January [1856]
Summary
Encloses "notes for Mr. D" [see 1818] and a memorandum on the wild cattle of southern India [see 1819].
Breeds of silky fowl of China and Malaya. Black-skinned fowl.
Doubts any breed of canary has siskin blood; all remain true to their type.
Wild canary and finch hybrids.
Hybrids between one- and two-humped camels.
Does not regard zebra markings on asses as an indication of interbreeding but as one of the many instances of markings in the young which more or less disappear in the adult.
Crossing of Coracias species at the edges of their ranges.
Regional variations and intergrading between species of pigeons.
Regards the differences in Treron as specific [see Natural selection, p. 115 n. 1].
Gives other instances of representative species or races differing only in certain details of colouring.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A110–13, A117–21 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1817 |
From John Davy 10 January 1856
Summary
On the vitality of the ova of the Salmonidae at different stages of development.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Jan 1856 |
Classmark: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 8 (1856–7): 27–33 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1819A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 14 January [1856]
Summary
Is attempting to get skins of poultry from all quarters of the world. Wants to inspect poultry collections.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 14 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1820 |
To John Edward Gray 14 January [1856]
Summary
Requests that JEG secure the assistance of Samuel Birch in regard to information about varieties of domesticated animals and plants in China. Encloses memorandum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Edward Gray |
Date: | 14 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1490, 1488) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1820A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier [1 February 1856]
Summary
Has been invited to see Mr Bult’s pigeons.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | [1 Feb 1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1821 |
To John Phillips 18 January [1856]
Summary
Discusses chapter [6] on cleavage and foliation in South America. Notes especially cleavage where two series cross and cleavage as basis of foliation in metamorphosed rock. Notes foliation in rocks that have been liquefied by heat. Mentions case described in his "Geology of the Falkland Islands" [Collected papers 1: 203–12]. Discusses relationship of cleavage to beds. Speculations on association between grauwacke and clay-slates.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Phillips |
Date: | 18 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.122) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1822 |
To J. E. Gray 19 January [1856]
Summary
Is obliged for JEG’s assistance.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Edward Gray |
Date: | 19 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1491) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1822A |
To J. S. Henslow 22 January [1856]
Summary
Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique [raisonnée (1855)] strikes him as a wonderful, admirable work.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 22 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A108–A109 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1823 |
To Walter Elliot 23 January 1856
Summary
Requests WE’s measurements of tigers.
Asks about a work on domestic pigeons in an Eastern language. Will consult [Ayeen Akbery or, the institutes of the Emperor Akber, trans. from Persian by Francis Gladwin, 2 vols. (1777, 1800)].
Asks for specimen skins of domestic pigeons and poultry. [See Variation 1: 205.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Walter Elliot |
Date: | 23 Jan 1856 |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.123) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1824 |
From Edward Blyth 23 January 1856
Summary
Believes the goldfish originates from a wild, gold variety of Chinese carp.
Gallinaceous birds.
Crested turkeys.
EB divides the gallinaceous birds into five families on anatomical distinctions.
Wild dog species of India and Asia; ranges of some species, specific identity of others.
The fauna of the Seychelles.
Breeding of fowls in India and Africa.
Occurrence of turkeys in Africa.
Refers to some of his own papers giving fuller details of points raised previously.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Jan 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A122–A125 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1825 |
To John Phillips 28 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks JP for beautiful book [? The rivers, mountains and sea-coast of Yorkshire, 2d ed. (1855)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Phillips |
Date: | 28 Jan [1856] |
Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History Archive Collections (John Phillips collection)) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1828 |
To William Yarrell 6 [February 1856]
Summary
"The Pigeons are all quite well".
Sends thanks to Mrs Cotton.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Yarrell |
Date: | 6 [Feb 1856] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1829 |
To Samuel Birch 6 February [1856]
Summary
Is grateful for SB’s note and assistance. Will call upon him in London in a fortnight.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Birch |
Date: | 6 Feb [1856] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1492) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1829A |
From Charles James Fox Bunbury 7 February 1856
Summary
Has heard CD is much interested in questions relating to varieties and species. Mentions a case of a seminal variety of Colletia spinosa, described by John Lindley, which appears identical with another wild species of Colletia from S. America. Hopes CD will one day "enlighten us very much" on "the laws of species". There are many different views on the limits of species; M. F. Dunal made 50 species of Solanum which George Bentham considers are all varieties of S. nigrum.
Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Feb 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 374, DAR 205.4: 97 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1830 |
From Edward Blyth 23 February 1856
Summary
Opposition to EB within the Asiatic Society.
Possibility of establishment of a zoological garden at Calcutta.
Has seen Gallus varius alive for the first time.
Will procure domestic pigeons for CD; could CD pay for them by returning hardy creatures, such as macaws and marmosets, which EB can sell for a high price in India?
Does not recall his authority for genealogy of the asses of Oman. If a genuine wild ass exists EB believes it will be in south Arabia.
Infertility of Irish and Devon red deer.
Details of an unusual species of wild dog.
Fertility of canine hybrids. General tendency toward hybrid sterility.
Has skins of hybrid Coracias and the parent species.
Wide-ranging species; skua found in Europe and Australia, but not in the tropics.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Feb 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A128–A132 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1832 |
From Edward Blyth 26 February 1856
Summary
There is a possibility of establishment of a Government Museum at Calcutta, with which the Asiatic Society Museum would be merged. EB would like the curatorship but fears other possible applicants. Asks CD to represent him to W. H. Sykes.
Discusses the ancients’ awareness of various cats as deduced from the etymology of their names.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Feb 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A126–A127 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1833 |
Darwin, C. R. | (189) |
Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Blyth, Edward | (6) |
Wollaston, T. V. | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (69) |
Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (24) |
Lubbock, John | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (9) |