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To Asa Gray   12 October [1856]

Summary

Thanks AG for the first part of his "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403]

and for information on social and varying plants.

Would like to know number of genera of introduced plants in U. S.

Is surprised at some affinities of northern U. S. flora and asks for any climatic explanations.

Asks what proportion of genera common to U. S. and Europe are mundane.

Is glad AG will work out the northern ranges of the European species and the ranges of species with regard to size of genera.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  12 Oct [1856]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (6)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-1973
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Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments

Summary

1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…

Matches: 30 hits

  • … but really I do think you have a good right to be so’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 and] 20 …
  • … species. Darwin attempted to dissuade him from this view ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 14 [January 1862 …
  • … partially sterile together. He failed. Huxley replied ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 January 1862 …
  • … and pronounced them ‘simply perfect’, but continued ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 18 December [1862] ) …
  • … resigned to their difference of opinion, but complained ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1862 …
  • … letters, Darwin, impressed, gave him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] …
  • … protégé, telling Hooker: ‘he is no common man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). …
  • … Towards the end of the year, he wrote to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ): …
  • … and added, ‘new cases are tumbling in almost daily’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). In …
  • … hopeful, became increasingly frustrated, telling Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1862] ) …
  • … on the problem: ‘the labour is great’, he told Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 10–20 June [1862] ), ‘I …
  • … resulted from his ‘ enormous  labour over them’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; …
  • … Oliver: ‘I can see at least 3 classes of dimorphism’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 12 [April 1862] ), …
  • … result once out of four or five sets of experiments’ ( letter to M. T. Masters, 24 July [1862] ). …
  • … one species may be said to be generically distinct’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 14 July [1862] ). The …
  • … and determined to publish on  Linum  ‘at once’ ( letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ), …
  • … d . like to make out this wonderfully complex case—’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 29 [July 1862] ). …
  • … The case clearly excited Darwin, who exclaimed to Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 9 August [1862] ), ‘I …
  • … that the case warranted a paper for the Linnean Society ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 6 October [1862] …
  • … that had given him ‘great pleasure to ride’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). But he …
  • … know not  in the least , whether the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] …
  • … govern the structure of almost every  flower’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 8 June [1862] ). …
  • … so doubtful about anything I published’, he told Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1862] ). …
  • … May, and George Bentham pronounced it ‘most valuable’ (letter from George Bentham, 15 May 1862).  …
  • … in writing the book, it was, after all, ‘a success’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June 1862] ). …
  • … power of natural selection. He made the point to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 March [1862] …
  • … the truth of natural selection through the back door ( letter to Asa Gray, 23[–4] July [1862] ). …
  • … ‘nearly overcome his opposition to the  Origin  ’ ( letter from Asa Gray, 2–3 July 1862 ). …
  • … with ‘good dashes of original reflexions’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, 13 January [1862] ). He warmly …
  • … caution into Tyndall’s ears’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10–12 November [1862] ). Another of …

Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants

Summary

Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863  greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…

Matches: 29 hits

  • … purposes’ (see  Correspondence  vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1862] , and …
  • … book (Down House MS) and  Correspondence  vol. 5, letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 April [1855] ). …
  • … its sensitivity to touch (see  Correspondence  vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December …
  • … his employer’s hothouses over the previous two years. In a letter of 24 December [1862] ( …
  • … conservatories, dry-stoves, and moist- or bark-stoves (p. 1012). More particularly, it was …
  • … he had had, he would ‘probably have made a mess of it’ (letter to G. H. Turnbull, [16? February …
  • … adding ‘I shall keep to curious & experimental plants’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January …
  • … of Westerham, with whom he had dealt over many years. In his letter to Hooker, Darwin mentioned that …
  • … of the plants you want before going to Nurserymen’ (letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 January 1863] ) …
  • … I shall avoid[,] of course I must not have from Kew’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 January [1863] ) …
  • … him: ‘I long to stock it, just like a school-boy’ (letter to J. D.  Hooker, 15 February [1863] ). …
  • … which I wished for, but which I did not like to ask for’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, [21 February …
  • … in a particular mixture of moss, peat, and charcoal (see the letter from Henrietta Emma Darwin to …
  • … of his plants, proffering further advice on cultivation (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [6 March …
  • … sh d . not see such transcendent beauty in each leaf’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February …
  • … to envision the tropics (see  Correspondence  vol. 1, letter to Caroline Darwin, [28 April 1831] …
  • … of my old friends again’ ( Correspondence  vol. 1, letter to Catherine Darwin, May–June [1832] …
  • … of the tropics ( Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to Charles Lyell, 8 October [1845] ). …
  • … to identify the families to which they belonged. In his letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] , he …
  • … for experiments, which seem to me really worth trial’ (letter to J. D. Hooker, 21 February [1863] …
  • … [that is, cool hothouse]’ ( Correspondence  vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26[–7] March 1864 …
  • … Tait that he had ‘4 houses of different temperatures’ (letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March [1869 …
  • … to the greenhouses ( Correspondence  vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, [25 January 1864] ). …
  • … out’ on that list the plants he could not supply (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [16 February 1863] …
  • … ‘Gloxinia droopy & upright’ both in this list and in his letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 February …
  • … Treviranus 1863a, which he received in mid-February (see letter from L. C. Treviranus, 12 February …
  • … that Darwin made of the plants sent to him by Hooker (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] …
  • … as having been sent to Darwin from Kew. Darwin said in the letter to Hooker of 5 March [1863] …
  • … Treviranus and to Treviranus 1863a, p. 10. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] …

Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution

Summary

The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’.  Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

Matches: 30 hits

  • … shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding machine’  ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 December …
  • … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’  ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
  • … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’  ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
  • … who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). …
  • … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
  • … thro’ apes & savages at the moral sense of mankind’ ( letter to F. P. Cobbe, 23 March [1870?] …
  • … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
  • … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence  vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
  • … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
  • … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
  • … to their belief that all demons and spirits were white ( letter from W. W. Reade, 9 November 1870 …
  • … . . Could you make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] …
  • … or crying badly; but I fear he will not succeed’ ( letter to James Crichton-Browne, 8 June [1870] …
  • … Lucy Wedgwood, who sent a sketch of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). …
  • … is the inclination to finish my note on this subject’  ( letter from F. C. Donders, 17 May 1870 ). …
  • … the previous year (see  Correspondence  vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His …
  • … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
  • … towards each other, though in one sense rivals’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870] ). …
  • … version of the theory of descent by natural selection in a letter to Darwin, prompting much anxiety …
  • … But who is to criticise them? No one but yourself’ ( letter from H. W. Bates, 20 May 1870 ). …
  • … me to be able to say that I  never  write reviews’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, [22 May 1870] ). …
  • … design. Darwin commented on Mivart’s essay in a letter to William Henry Flower: ‘I am glad …
  • … time wd be wasted if I once began to answer objectors’ ( letter to W. H. Flower, 25 March [1870] ) …
  • … laborious & valuable labours on the Primates’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 23 April [1870] ). …
  • … Ape than such an Ape differs from a lump of granite’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 22 April 1870 …
  • … his “end” whatever may have been his “origin” ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 25 April 1870 ). In …
  • … by you in this manner than praised by many others’  ( letter to Armand de Quatrefages, 28 May [1870 …
  • … us which are stronger than the causes of discord’  ( letter from Armand de Quatrefages, 30 March …
  • … that you had called on assistants to describe them’  ( letter from Armand de Quatrefages, 18 July …
  • … years and your immortal work is above all attacks’  ( letter from Edouard van Beneden, 17 December …