From Asa Gray 22 September 1862
Summary
Last chapter of Orchids opens up a "knotty sort of question about accident or design".
Changes in orchid flowers as they age.
Thinks CD may find trimorphism in Nesaea verticillata.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Sept 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 118, 119 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3736 |
From J. D. Hooker [23 March 1862]
Summary
Lighthearted thoughts on "the development of an Aristocracy" after a visit to Walcot Hall, Shropshire.
On CD’s point about the effect of changed conditions on the reproductive organs, JDH does not see why this is not "itself a variation, not necessarily induced by domestication, but accompanying some variety artificially selected".
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [23 Mar 1862] |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 27–9; American Philosophical Society Library (Hooker papers, B/H76.2) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3480 |
From Asa Gray 5 September 1862
Summary
Suggests CD try to get Lythrum hyssopifolia from France.
Dimorphic flowers.
Differences between newly opened and older orchids.
Flowers of Spiranthes and Goodyera.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Sept 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 111: 81, DAR 165: 117 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3712 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from Asa Gray, 18–19 August 1862 and n. 10. Gray included his observations on this point in A. Gray 1862b , p. 427, noting: ‘we suspect that it is the column, rather than the labellum, which changes its position, but we have not been able to demonstrate it’. CD cited Gray’s findings in ‘Fertilization of orchids’ , p. 151 ( Collected papers 2: 148). Spiranthes cernua is common ladies’ …
| letter | (3) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Gray, Asa | (2) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
Lydia Becker
Summary
Becker was a leading member of the suffrage movement, perhaps best known for publishing the Women’s Suffrage Journal. She was also a successful biologist, astronomer and botanist and, between 1863 and 1877, an occasional correspondent of Charles Darwin. …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Becker was a leading member of the suffrage movement, perhaps best known for publishing the …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘ Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming …
Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma …
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: 1 hits
- … As for Mr Darwin, he is entirely fascinating… Darwin often discouraged …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
Darwin on human evolution
Summary
'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I shall be well abused, for as my son Frank says: "you treat man in such a bare-faced manner." …
Darwin soundbites
Summary
From atheistical cats to old fogies in Cambridge, we've collected some of Darwin's pithier remarks - some funny, some serious - but all quotes from letters you can read in full here. We particularly like this one: Will you be so kind as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … From atheistical cats to old fogies in Cambridge, we've collected some of Darwin's pithier remarks …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the publication of his …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
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
- … How much like a monkey is a person? Did our ancestors really swing from trees? Are we descended …
Florence Caroline Dixie
Summary
On October 29th 1880, Lady Florence Dixie wrote a letter to Charles Darwin from her home in the Scottish Borders; “Whilst reading the other day your very interesting account of A Naturalist’s Voyage round the world,” she said, “I came across a passage…of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On October 29th 1880, Lady Florence Dixie wrote a letter to Charles Darwin from her home in …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began …
