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To Asa Gray   [after 15 March 1857]

Summary

Urges AG to generalise from his observations on the flora of the northern U. S.

Expected to find separation of sexes in trees because he believes all living beings require an occasional cross, and none is perpetually self-fertilising. The multitude of flowers of a tree would be an obstacle to cross-fertilisation unless the sexes tended to be separate.

The Leguminosae are CD’s greatest opposers; he cannot find that garden varieties ever cross. Could AG inquire of intelligent nurserymen on the subject?

Thanks AG for information on protean genera; much wants to know whether their great variability is due to their conditions of existence or is innate in them at all times and places.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  [after 15 Mar 1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (8)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2060

Matches: 2 hits

  • … received it in his letter to J.  D. Hooker, 15 March [1857] . Letter from Asa Gray, 16  …
  • J.  D. Hooker, 1 December [1856] and 10 December [1856] . CD refers to his anecdote about Louis Agassiz related in the letter to Asa Gray, 1 January [1857] . …

To Asa Gray   18 June [1857]

Summary

Thanks for AG’s remarks on disjoined species. CD’s notions are based on belief that disjoined species have suffered much extinction, which is the common cause of small genera and disjoined ranges.

Discusses out-crossing in plants.

Has failed to meet with a detailed account of regular and normal impregnation in the bud. Podostemon, Subularia, and underwater Leguminosae are the strongest cases against him.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  18 June [1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (9a)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2109

Matches: 1 hit

  • … and letter from Asa Gray, 1 June 1857 . J.  D. Hooker 1854 . Steudel 1840–1. See letter to …

From Asa Gray   7 July 1857

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Summary

Believes, with CD, that extinction may be an important factor in explaining plant distributions, but sees no reason why the several species of a genus must ever have had a common or continuous area. "Convince me of that, or show me any good grounds for it … and I think you would carry me a good way with you". It is just such people as AG that CD has to satisfy and convince.

Feels that the crossing of individuals is important in repressing variation and perhaps in perpetuating the species, but instances some plants in which it cannot, apparently, take place.

Author:  Asa Gray
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  7 July 1857
Classmark:  DAR 205.9: 381; DAR 165: 98
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2120

Matches: 1 hit

  • … See letter to Asa Gray, 20 July [1857] . J.  D. Hooker and Thomson 1855. Jean Louis …

To Asa Gray   5 September [1857]

Summary

Encloses an abstract of his ideas on natural selection and the principle of divergence; the "means by which nature makes her species".

Discusses varieties and close species in large and small genera, finding some data from AG in conflict with his expectations.

Has been observing the action of bees in fertilising kidney beans and Lobelia.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  5 Sept [1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (48)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2136

Matches: 1 hit

  • … seeds from Kew (see letter to J.  D. Hooker, 14 [November 1857] ). The enclosure up to and …

From Asa Gray   16 February 1857

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Summary

Discusses the ranges of alpine species in U. S. and considers the possible migration routes of such species from Europe.

Lists those U. S. genera which he considers protean and describes the U. S. character of some genera which are protean in Europe.

Describes how he distinguishes introduced and aboriginal stocks of the same species.

Author:  Asa Gray
Addressee:  Charles Robert Darwin
Date:  16 Feb 1857
Classmark:  DAR 165: 96
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2053

Matches: 1 hit

  • … Asa Gray, 1 January [1857] and n.  6. See letters to J.  D. Hooker, 1 December [1856] and …

To Asa Gray   1 January [1857]

Summary

Thanks AG for 2d part of "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].

Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.

Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  1 Jan [1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (7)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2034

Matches: 1 hit

  • … letter from Asa Gray, 1 June 1857 . See letters to J.  D. Hooker, 1 December [1856] and …

To Asa Gray   29 November [1857]

Summary

Thanks AG for his criticisms of CD’s views; finds it difficult to avoid using the term "natural selection" as an agent.

Discusses crossing in Fumaria and barnacles.

Has received a naturally crossed kidney bean in which the seed-coat has been affected by the pollen of the fertilising plant.

Finds the rule of large genera having most varieties holds good and regards it as most important for his "principle of divergence".

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  29 Nov [1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (18)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2176

Matches: 1 hit

  • J.  D. Hooker, 25 September [1853] . CD may have spoken to John Phillips at the meeting of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society on 19 November 1857  …

To Asa Gray   20 July [1857]

Summary

Believes species have arisen, like domestic varieties, with much extinction, and that there are no such things as independently created species. Explains why he believes species of the same genus generally have a common or continuous area; they are actual lineal descendants.

Discusses fertilisation in the bud and the insect pollination of papilionaceous flowers. His theory explains why, despite the risk of injury, cross-fertilisation is usual in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, even in hermaphrodites.

Author:  Charles Robert Darwin
Addressee:  Asa Gray
Date:  20 July [1857]
Classmark:  Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (9b)
Letter no:  DCP-LETT-2125

Matches: 1 hit

  • 1857 . CD had asked Joseph Dalton Hooker to read and comment on the draft of his chapter on geographical distribution (see letters to J.  D. …
Document type
letter (8)
Author
Addressee
Correspondent
Date
1857disabled_by_default
01 (1)
02 (1)
03 (1)
06 (1)
07 (2)
09 (1)
11 (1)