To J. D. Hooker [5 April 1866]
Summary
Queries for John Smith [Kew curator] on crossing a cucumber variety.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [5 Apr 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 286 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5054 |
To William Robinson 5 May [1866]
Summary
Writes a line of thanks; includes instructions on procedure for crossing experiments.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Robinson |
| Date: | 5 May [1866] |
| Classmark: | Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library (WRO/2/26) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5080 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Writes a line of thanks; includes instructions on procedure for crossing experiments. …
To J. D. Hooker 20 November [1866]
Summary
Requests roots of two species of Mirabilis for "a curious experiment in crossing".
Has subscribed £10 to Jamaica committee to prosecute Governor Eyre.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 305 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5281 |
To Edouard Bornet 1 December 1866
Summary
Thanks JBEB for Papaver seeds. Has long wished to see some of the closely allied subspecies and hopes to make some crossing experiments with them.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean-Baptiste-Édouard (Édouard) Bornet |
| Date: | 1 Dec 1866 |
| Classmark: | Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Bibliothèque de Botanique, Paris (Ms CRY 501, fol. 387) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5292 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 11 August 1866]
Summary
Describes the difficulties of crossing papilionaceous flowers. Believes the lack of success is a consequence of the need for early castration and successive applications of pollen on the stigma. Gives details of a method he has used to cross such flowers successfully.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
| Date: | [before 11 Aug 1866] |
| Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (1866): 756 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5189 |
From J. T. Moggridge 9 November [1866]
Summary
At CD’s request he is looking into the gardeners’ custom of separating all sweetpea varieties in order to obtain pure seed.
| Author: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 201 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5272 |
From Richard Trevor Clarke 6 November [1866]
Summary
Wants to publish his observation on colour changes in Matthiola seeds.
Has been crossing cotton.
Approves of C. V. Naudin and Max Wichura.
| Author: | Richard Trevor Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 163 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4932 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … colour changes in Matthiola seeds. Has been crossing cotton. Approves of C. V. Naudin and …
To Thomas Laxton 3 November [1866]
Summary
Has examined TL’s crossed peas. Observes that in several lots crossed peas are smooth, like paternal stock, not wrinkled like maternal stock. Is this a result of mere variation, peculiar culture, or pollen of the father?
Encloses queries [missing].
Intends planting peas at once if TL approves.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Laxton |
| Date: | 3 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5267 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 November [1866]
Summary
Requests water-lily pods to count, weigh, and to germinate some of the seeds of the crossed and uncrossed pods.
Hopes Haeckel did not bore him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 304 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5262 |
To J. T. Moggridge 13 November [1866]
Summary
Discusses fertilisation of peas by bees. Asks for seeds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Traherne Moggridge |
| Date: | 13 Nov [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 375 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5277 |
To Robert Caspary 4 March 1866
Summary
Thanks RC for photograph and for papers, which are of highest interest to CD. He is not fully convinced about the rose by RC’s graft-hybrid paper [Bull. Congr. Int. Bot. & Hortic. Amsterdam (1865): 65–80]. Still retains faith in his own view that no plant is perpetually self-fertilised.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Xaver Robert (Robert) Caspary |
| Date: | 4 Mar 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 92: A38–9 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5026 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and n. 3. CD reiterated his views on the advantages of crossing in Variation 2: 174–6. …
From W. B. Tegetmeier [after 4 August 1866]
Summary
Alterations to the woodcuts of poultry for Variation.
| Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 4 Aug 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 74 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5180 |
To William Robinson [29 April 1866]
Summary
Is sorry to have missed seeing WR.
Mentions some crossing experiments with Nymphaea and Euryale in which he would be interested, if WR ever had the chance to make them [see Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 365].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Robinson |
| Date: | [29 Apr 1866] |
| Classmark: | Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library (WRO/2/25) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5072 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to have missed seeing WR. Mentions some crossing experiments with Nymphaea and Euryale in …
To Friedrich Hildebrand 16 May [1866]
Summary
Has forwarded FH’s paper on Fumariaceae to horticultural congress. Comments on its findings.
Discusses forms of Oxalis.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
| Date: | 16 May [1866] |
| Classmark: | Klaus Groove (private collection); sold by Venator and Hanstein, Cologne (dealers), 16 March 2018 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5092 |
To J. D. Hooker 21 [July 1866]
Summary
Asks help in naming a lupin, enclosed. Nurseryman said parties who make experiments should find the names. He might have added "and not trouble their friends".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 21 [July 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 293 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5162 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1866] ), as illustrating the difficulty of crossing papilionaceous flowers (see second …
To J. D. Hooker [28 April 1866]
Summary
Needs Annales de la Société d’horticulture de Paris 7 (1830).
Asks that Oliver provide a reference for microscopical appearance and structure of a bud.
Was very well on first part of London visit.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [28 Apr 1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 287 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5071 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ferox
☞ This means a memorandum about crossing. — We return on Monday morning or perhaps …
To W. D. Fox 24 August [1866]
Summary
Family news. Describes [final] illness of Susan Darwin [d. 3 Oct 1866]. CD’s health better.
Making rapid progress on Variation.
Has heard of hybrids between moths mentioned by WDF.
Work on [4th] edition of Origin has delayed Variation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 24 Aug [1866] |
| Classmark: | Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology MSS 405 A. Gift of the Burndy Library) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5197 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the family Sphingidae. Fox had reported crossing two species (see letter from W. D. Fox, …
To Asa Gray 10 September [1866]
Summary
L. Agassiz’s evidence [for glaciation of America] is very weak.
Thanks AG for arranging for American edition of Variation, but doubts that the book will be successful.
Has found no differences in pollen of Rhamnus so cannot conjecture whether it is dimorphic.
The common oxlip of England is certainly a hybrid between the primrose and the cowslip whereas Primula elatior is a good species.
Reports experiments on the relative vigour of seedlings from cross- and self-fertilised plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 10 Sept [1866] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (92) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5210 |
From W. B. Tegetmeier 4 July 1866
Summary
All the blocks [for Variation] are now engraved except the rock-dove.
| Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 July 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 72 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5143 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of Hamburgh fowl, and the effects of crossing on their plumage patterns. The poultry book …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 4 December [1866]
Summary
Is tempted to cite Mr Zurhorst’s case.
Hopes to send pigeon and fowl MS [of Variation] to press in a fortnight.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 4 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5293 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … would repeat an experiment that involved crossing a Cochin hen with a Spanish fowl in …
| letter | (33) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (23) |
| Hildebrand, Friedrich | (2) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (2) |
| Clarke, R. T. | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
| Caspary, Robert | (2) |
| Robinson, William (b) | (2) |
| Bornet, Édouard | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (33) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Hildebrand, Friedrich | (3) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (3) |
| Caspary, Robert | (2) |
Darwin's 1876 letters online
Summary
Birth, tragic death . . . and cardigan jackets. To mark the 211th anniversary of Darwin's birth, we have released online the transcripts and footnotes of over 460 letters written to and from him in 1876 and a supplement of 180 letters written before…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am now getting ready a book on the advantages of crossing, which will be a sort of complement to …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 6 hits
- … him to carry out tasks like counting seeds of Lythrum , crossing cowslips with polyanthuses, and …
- … a full conviction of the change of species is.’ Crossing experiments In addition to …
- … Continuing from these earlier studies, in 1864 he conducted crossing experiments between different …
- … other papers of Scott’s followed, reporting the results of crossing experiments on different species …
- … years, Darwin consulted Charles William Crocker about his crossing experiments with hollyhocks, and …
- … and Friedrich Hildebrand in Germany compared results of crossing experiments with a Pulmonaria …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 9 hits
- … to James Moggridge to ask him to observe whether spontaneous crossing of different varieties of this …
- … I got fresh plants, & consequently took up the effect of crossing & self-fertilising plants …
- … in Florence kept varieties of sweet peas separated to avoid crossing ( From Federico Delpino, 18 …
- … native Mediterranean setting. Although he continued his crossing experiments through the early …
- … what great vigour is given to seedling plants by the crossing of their parents’ ( To Fritz Müller, …
- … & have strength to complete it) will be on the advantages of Crossing Plants, & this will …
- … Meehan had been a vocal opponent of Darwin’s views on crossing, and his paper, ‘Are insects any …
- … press observations continued for 10 years on the effects of crossing plants, & I think that …
- … inferred from observations on self fertilising plants that crossing was of little importance …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … whether hybrid sterility was the inevitable result of crossing species. Thomas Huxley had stated …
- … stigmas ’. Darwin had hoped to publish the results of the crossing experiments immediately, but by …
- … 1863, when Lythrum was flowering, Darwin resumed his crossing experiments. He also wrote to …
- … of the various crosses. For this, he turned to his earlier crossing experiments, which included some …
- … adding this work to his book on ‘the good effects of crossing’ ( Cross and self fertilisation ), …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … conclusion in my speculations on the origin of species, that crossing played an important part in …
1877 letters now online
Summary
Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. The transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters written to and from Darwin in 1877 are now online. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877…
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 3 hits
- … was only one of many adaptations that had evolved to promote crossing between individuals of the …
- … males and females of unisexual animals. Through extensive crossing experiments, and painstaking …
- … a number of other structures and behaviours that facilitated crossing, especially with the aid of …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 4 hits
- … the text. Orchids , which concentrated on the ‘means of crossing’, was seen by Darwin as the …
- … , which provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). …
- … before a disease-free variety of potato had been produced by crossing the most pest-free varieties …
- … self-fertilisation To demonstrate the advantages of crossing, Darwin presented the results …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the possibility of all organic beings occasionally crossing, & on the remarkable …
Floral Dimorphism
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Floral studies In 1877 Darwin published a book that included a series of smaller studies on botanical subjects. Titled The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, it consisted primarily of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … out of the meaning of heterostyled flowers. The results of crossing such flowers in an illegitimate …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … his own copy of the first edition of Origin neatly crossing through every occurrence of ‘natural …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to the action of external conditions, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 3 hits
- … or the Principles of Variation, Inheritance, Reversion, Crossing, Interbreeding, and Selection under …
- … on dimorphism and trimorphism and reported on a series of crossing experiments with orchids. Darwin …
- … [1867] ). Darwin was also interested in experiments crossing different species of orchids …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to study fertilisation (in particular the effects of crossing and of self-fertilisation); …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix VI). In addition to crossing varieties of Primula in 1863, he …
- … the two men discussed a multitude of botanical subjects, the crossing experiments that Scott had …
- … and he continued to observe individuals of the same species crossing with one another in a variety …
- … particularly when he was working on the chapter he called ‘Crossing & Sterility’ (see …
- … discussions, completing three sections, on inheritance, crossing and sterility, and selection, by …
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
- … effect, on my memory.–– I remember, when going there crossing in the carriage a broad ford, & …
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…
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online
Summary
To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…
Matches: 1 hits
- … fertilisation , summing up many years of experiments on crossing plants. I wd gladly …
Darwin’s earthquakes
Summary
Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he collected. Travelling on from South America and crossing back half way round the world, …
