To J. D. Hooker [9 April 1866]
Summary
Sad about Oliver’s loss.
JDH’s reference to odd Begonia at same time as an article about it came out in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1866): 313–14].
Is astonished that Pangenesis seems perplexing to JDH. Pleads guilty to its being "wildly abominably speculative (worthy even of Herbert Spencer)".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [9 Apr 1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 284 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5051 |
From J. D. Hooker 14 December 1866
Summary
Scarlet seed is Adenanthera pavonina. JDH’s suggestion on how disseminated.
On Herbert Spencer, "all oil no bone – a thinking pump", but his paper on sap and wood [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 405–30] is good science. His refusal to bring a specimen for analysis when confronted by JDH.
Bentham and Martin disagreement.
Speculations on New Zealand flora.
Albert Günther’s paper on fishes on each side of Isthmus of Panama [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1866): 600–4].
On the quantity (bulk and weight) of organic life [matter].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Dec 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 121–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5305 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … D. Hooker, 24 January 1864 , and letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 November [1864] ). Spencer’s …
- … J. D. Hooker, 10 December [1866] and n. 3). ‘Frugiferous’: i.e. frugivorous. In his letter to Hooker of 10 December [1866] , CD referred to Herbert Spencer , whose Principles of biology ( Spencer 1864– …
- … Hooker refers to George Bentham and Maxwell Tylden Masters . Spencer had argued that the size and shape of individual umbelliferous flowers were related to the density and shape of the inflorescences ( Spencer 1864–7 , 2: 157; see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from Charles and Emma Darwin to J. D. …
To J. D. Hooker 10 December [1866]
Summary
A confounded cock ground the crimson seeds up so CD could not find them in its excrement. CD is puzzled by how seeds can be disseminated if merely ground up by birds. Perhaps like acorns from seeds accidentally dropped by birds?
A woodcock’s leg with dry clay clinging to it, from which CD has grown a microscopical rush.
Spencer would have been wonderful if he had trained himself to observe more.
On New Zealand flora and connection with Australia.
Difficulty of speculating about the amount of organic chemical change at different periods.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 10 Dec [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 308, 308b |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5300 |
From J. D. Hooker 13 May 1866
Summary
Refers to enclosure from Asa Gray
with whom he can talk calmly now that war is over. North had no right to resort to bloodshed.
Startled by CD’s attendance at Royal Society soirée.
Has asked E. B. Tylor to make up questions for consuls and missionaries, through whose wives a lot of most curious information [for Descent?] could be obtained.
Tying umbilical cord has always been a mystery to JDH.
John Crawfurd’s paper on cultivated plants is shocking twaddle ["On the migration of cultivated plants in reference to ethnology", J. Bot. Br. & Foreign 4 (1866): 317–32].
R. T. Lowe back from Madeira.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 13 May 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 71–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5089 |
From J. D. Hooker [24 July 1866]
Summary
Working on "Insular floras" lecture for BAAS Nottingham meeting [see 5135].
Puzzled at distribution of Madeiran and Canaries plants and insects.
Supports Forbes’s Atlantis hypothesis [see 956], which he has reread and to which he will allude.
Wollaston disappointing on Madeiran insects.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [24 July 1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2 (letters): 239 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5165 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … vol. 12, letter from J. D. Hooker, 29 March 1864 ; see also Allan 1967 , p. 180). …
- … Hooker intended to write arboreous. See J. D. Hooker 1866a , p. 27. For Wollaston’s statistics on the relative abundance of coleopterous insects in Madeira and the Canaries, see, for example, T. V. Wollaston 1864 , …
From J. D. Hooker 28 September 1866
Summary
Drosera and Erica massoni have been sent.
Had heard of Agassiz’s theory but not that CD’s theory had raised it.
JDH wrote the article on A. Murray.
Frankland’s lecture too much for him.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Sept 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 106–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5222 |
From J. D. Hooker 18 August 1866
Summary
Returns two volumes of Felix Holt [George Eliot (1866)]
and the Coddington [lens].
John Smith will send Drosera.
Nation reports that Louis Agassiz holds that the Amazon Valley was formed since the glacial epoch.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Aug 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 104–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5192 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, [27 January 1864] and n. 9). CD had begun extensive …
- … J. M. Herbert], [early May 1831] and n. 3). Hooker refers to John Smith (1821–88). Drosera binata (syn. D. dichotoma ) is described in Insectivorous plants , pp. 281–4. CD had requested a specimen from Hooker in 1864 ( …
To Henry Bence Jones 3 January [1866]
Summary
A report on his somewhat improved health.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Bence Jones |
Date: | 3 Jan [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 249: 86 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4968A |
From J. D. Hooker [26 or 27 February 1866]
Summary
Lyell wants to see JDH’s last letter [the part on glacial periods]. Lyell full of concern about astronomical causes of heat and cold on the globe.
Encloses letter from John Scott.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [26 or 27] Feb 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 65–6; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence 156: 1048) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5017 |
To Charles Lyell 7 February [1866]
Summary
Discussion of Mrs Agassiz’s letter [to Mary Lyell, forwarded to CD] regarding S. American glacial action,
with comments on Bunbury’s letter on temperate plants.
Refers to opinions of Agassiz, David Forbes, Hooker, and CD on glacial period and glaciers.
Wishes he had published a long chapter on glacial period [Natural selection, pp. 535–66] written ten years ago.
Tells of death of his sister, Catherine, and other family matters.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 7 Feb [1866] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.312) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4999 |
From J. D. Hooker 4 December 1866
Summary
Lyell’s volume [Principles, 10th ed.] received.
"We must now keep him straight anent origin and development."
Some of Spencer’s new part is interesting but much is dull and ponderous.
Huxley’s Elementary physiology [1866].
Has finished his New Zealand manual [Handbook of New Zealand flora (1864–7)]. New Zealand flora [and past geological conditions] suggest islands were once connected.
Speculates on the total amount of living organised matter on the globe, and whether it varies.
Balfour Stewart on sunspots.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Dec 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 114–17 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5294 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … volume of Hooker’s Handbook of the New Zealand flora ( J. D. Hooker 1864–7 ) appeared …
- … Hooker probably refers to chapter 10 of Principles of biology ( Spencer 1864–7 , 2: 377–88), in which Spencer discussed the heritability of variations occuring during an organism’s lifespan. For more on CD’s theory of pangenesis, see the letter to J. D. …
- … 1864] and n. 8. The observation is noted in Stewart 1865 , p. 380. Frances Harriet Hooker was expecting her sixth child ( Allan 1967 s.v. ‘Hooker pedigree’). CD’s annotation refers to the seeds that he had recently received from Fritz Müller (see letter to J. D. …
To Charles Lyell 12 October [1866]
Summary
More comments on proofs [of CL’s Principles of geology, 10th ed.]. Discusses permanence of continents and other points.
Refers to passage describing evaporation of snow in Journal [of researches, pp. 277–8].
Cites astronomers’ views on increasing length of day.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 12 Oct [1866] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.321) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5239 |
From William Erasmus Darwin [7 May – 11 June 1866]
Summary
Sends flowers of buckthorn [Rhamnus catharticus] collected on Isle of Wight.
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [7 May – 11 June 1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 109: A76 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5108 |
To B. D. Walsh [19] April [1866]
Summary
CD has followed Lyell’s advice and avoided controversy over Origin but encourages BDW to attack S. H. Scudder and others who argue foolishly or misquote him.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
Date: | [19] Apr [1866] |
Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Walsh 7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5061 |
To J. D. Hooker 30 June [1866]
Summary
Has heard from B. J. Sulivan about the fossils at Gallegos, Patagonia. Would be a great haul for palaeontology if Duke of Somerset would encourage Capt. Mayne to collect them [on survey of Magellan Strait].
Tells JDH of a new map of world that he might use in his lecture [on "Insular floras", BAAS, 1866, J. Bot. Br. & Foreign 5 (1867): 23–31; Gard. Chron. (1867): 6, 27, 50, 75].
Impressed by H. Spencer’s last number, but each suggestion would require years of work to be of use to science.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 30 June [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 292 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5135 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … 1864–7 are in the Darwin Library–CUL bound as a single volume (see Marginalia 1: 769–73). For more on CD’s and Hooker’s general reservations regarding Spencer’s work, see the letter from J. D. …
- … Hooker visited Down on 18 August ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [17 August 1866] ). Herbert Spencer’s Principles of biology was published in instalments to subscribers between 1863 and 1867; the most recent issue appeared in June 1866, and discussed the formation of inner and outer tissues of plants and animals (see Spencer 1864– …
To J. D. Hooker 25 September [1866]
Summary
Susan Darwin still lives, but is dying.
Requests an Erica massoni to compare with Drosera.
On L. Agassiz’s "astonishing" view that Amazon Valley was filled with gigantic glacier. Asa Gray says LA is determined to cover the globe with glaciers in order to destroy "Darwinian views".
Excellent review of A. Murray [The geographical distribution of mammals] in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1866): 902].
Frankland’s Royal Institution lecture ["On the source of muscular power" Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 4 (1862–6): 661–85].
Wallace’s paper.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 25 Sept [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 300 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5217 |
From George Henslow [13 or 14 June 1866]
Summary
Thanks for criticism of proofs of his paper [see 5117].
Not sure whether CD believes in reversion and would like a positive statement as this is the one point C. V. Naudin especially observed. Naudin offers his remarks on ovules as a matter to be proved ["Nouvelles recherches sur l’hybridité", Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 1 (1865): 25–176].
Author: | George Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [13 or 14] June 1866 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 158 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5120 |
To Charles Lyell 15 February [1866]
Summary
Thanks CL for Hooker’s letter.
Discussion of Hooker’s views on glacial action and temperature with specific reference to S. America.
His squabbles with Hooker on transport of seeds via water currents,
temperate plants, and preservation of tropical plants during cooler period.
Expresses interest in seeing Agassiz’s letter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 15 Feb [1866] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.313) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5007 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … vol. 12, letter to J. D. Hooker, [20–]22 February [1864] and nn. 10 and 11. See also …
- … J. D. Hooker, 19 January [ 1865] and n. 7); however, Hooker is named as the possible author in ML 1: 479 n. There is an unbound annotated copy of the paper in the Darwin Library–CUL. During 1864, …
- … 1864 ). Hooker had questioned how tropical species could survive a former cold period, and expressed anxiety over the lack of suitable ‘greenhouse’ temperatures during such a period (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter from J. D. …
To Cuthbert Collingwood 16 February [1866]
Summary
Regrets that his health prevents their meeting, but offers some suggestions for the expedition to the Malay Archipelago and coast of China: the search of caverns in the Malay Archipelago for fossil bones, deep sea dredging in the tropics, glacial action in any moderately steep mountains, means of geographical distribution, the history of domestic animals in these regions, and gestures and expressions of real savages as compared with our civilised expressions. [See 5008 and 5011.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Cuthbert Collingwood |
Date: | 16 Feb [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 96 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5008B |
To J. V. Carus 26 December [1866]
Summary
Requests a change in text [of ch. 12 of Origin: "Geographical distribution"] owing to recent observations of Albert Günther on the marine faunas of the eastern and western shores of South and Central America.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Julius Victor Carus |
Date: | 26 Dec [1866] |
Classmark: | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Slg. Darmstaedter Lc 1859: Darwin, Charles, Bl. 57–58) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6513 |
Darwin, C. R. | (18) |
Hooker, J. D. | (12) |
Collingwood, Cuthbert | (1) |
Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (17) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Bence Jones, Henry | (1) |
Carus, J. V. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (35) |
Hooker, J. D. | (19) |
Lyell, Charles | (4) |
Collingwood, Cuthbert | (2) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |