From Asa Gray 30 June 1855
Summary
Sends a list of "close" species from his Manual of botany.
Hopes Hooker or CD will write an essay on species. Discusses some of the difficulties of defining botanical species.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 June 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 92a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1707 |
From J. D. Hooker 30 September 1849
Summary
CD partly right. JDH was calling "stratification" what CD calls "foliation". Answers CD’s question on cleavage foliation in Himalayas. Glacial action.
Charmed by CD’s Admiralty instructions on geology [in Manual of scientific enquiry (1849), Collected papers 1: 227–50], but complains he does not give prices of books and instruments he recommends.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Sept 1849 |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (India letters 1847–51: 217–18 JDH/1/10) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1257 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … of Great Britain (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 20 February – 16 [March] 1848 , n. 3). …
- … J. D. Hooker 1854 , 2: 133–8. John Grant Malcolmson had died in Dhoolia, India, in 1844 ( Gentleman’s Magazine n.s. 21 (1844): 670). Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India. The Admiralty manual, Herschel ed. 1849. Alexander James Adie , Scottish instrument maker (see letter to Robert Chambers, [14 February – 20 March 1848] , …
From Charles Moore 15 May 1879
Summary
Sends an ammonite from the Upper Lias, which has Balanus-like bodies on surface. He wants CD’s interpretation. Discusses possible function of aptychi, siphuncular tube, and operculum in ammonites.
Author: | Charles Moore |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 May 1879 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 233 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12055 |
From Edmund Saul Dixon [September–October 1848]
Summary
He can distinguish varieties of guinea-fowl as soon as birds are hatched.
Behaviour of Malay hens.
Author: | Edmund Saul (Eugene Sebastian Delamer) Dixon |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [Sept–Oct 1848] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.5: 214 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1621 |
From J. D. Hooker 12 November 1858
Summary
Busy with introductory essay to [The botany of the Antarctic voyage, pt III] Flora Tasmaniae [printed separately as On the flora of Australia (1859)].
Now explains greater abundance of European species in Tasmania than in Fuegia by CD’s "refrigeration" hypothesis.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Nov 1858 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 123–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2358 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Hooker, 9[–10] November [1858] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 2 November [1858] . Hooker refers to Charlotte Eyton , the daughter of Thomas Campbell Eyton , who was much interested in scientific topics ( DNB ). William Strong Hore , a botanist who lived in Plymouth, Devonshire, had previously subscribed to John Ralfs’s monograph on the desmids ( Ralfs 1848 ). …
To J. D. Hooker 14 [November 1857]
Summary
Rule that species vary most in larger genera seems universal.
Response to Gardeners’ Chronicle note on "Bees and kidney beans" [Collected papers 1: 275–7].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 14 [Nov 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 215 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2170 |
To Hugh Falconer [1845?–7 or 1857–64]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
Date: | 1845-7 or 1857-64 |
Classmark: | DAR 144: 21 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2305 |
To J. D. Hooker 29 [May 1854]
Summary
CD "lectures" JDH on taking care of his health.
CD’s pleasure in London trip.
CD and Emma have taken season tickets to Crystal Palace.
Edward Forbes’s "Introductory Lecture" is the best CD ever read.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 29 [May 1854] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 122 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1575 |
To F. T. Buckland 1 February [1863]
Summary
CD sends thanks for information; will write about the fins.
His health is weak and he is "almost smothered" with facts and inquiries, so is trying to restrict the scope of his present work, on variation under domestication.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Trevelyan (Frank) Buckland |
Date: | 1 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3961 |
To Charles Lyell 25 October [1859]
Summary
Discusses P. S. Pallas’ theory of origin of domestic dog breeds. CD believes domestic dogs descended from more than one aboriginal wild species but ultimately "we believe all canine species have descended from one parent and the only question is whether the whole or only part of difference in our domestic breeds has arisen since man domesticated them".
Races of man offer great difficulty. The doctrine of Pallas and Agassiz that there are several species "does not help us" in the least.
Hopes Henry Holland will not review Origin.
CD’s and CL’s difference on "principle of improvement" and "power of adaptation" is profound. Improvement in breeds of cattle requires neither. Urges him to reread first four chapters of Origin carefully. Natural selection is not to be contrasted with "improvement": every step involves improvement in relation to the conditions of life. There is no need for a "principle" to intervene.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 25 Oct [1859] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.174) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2510 |
From Edward Blyth 21 April 1855
Summary
Indigenous domestic animals of the New World.
Relationship of Newfoundland and Esquimo dogs to the wolf. Dogs like the Esquimo occur in Tibet and Siberia. Indian pariah dogs and jackals occasionally interbreed.
Describes domestic cats of India; reports cases of their interbreeding with wild cats. Wild cats are tamed for hunting.
Races of silkworm in India are crossed [see 1690].
Domesticated plants, fish, and birds of India.
Comments on local races and species of crows; it is impossible to trace a line of demarcation between races and species.
Variation in the ability of hybrids to propagate.
Indian cattle breeds; differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus.
Is not satisfied that aboriginally wild species of horse and ass exist.
Believes all fancy breeds of pigeon originated in the East. Wild ancestors of pigeons, ducks, geese, and fowls. Interbreeding of wild species of pheasant.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A57–A68 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1670 |
From J. D. Hooker [29 June 1854]
Summary
JDH on "highness" of Coniferae: they are genuine Dicotyledons, not a link to cryptogams; that is a geologists’ fallacy. Thus they are highest plants in Carboniferous.
Does not agree with CD’s "elastic" species theory. Long correspondence with Lyell on this.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [29 June 1854] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 383 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1576 |
To J. D. Hooker 28 September [1861]
Summary
Bates agrees with CD on neuter ants.
Orchids.
Repeating experiment of C. F. v. Gärtner to study Huxley’s idea of physiological species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 28 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 114 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3268 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Hooker, 8 February [1860] ). See letter from J. D. Hooker, [28 September 1861] . CD referred to this difficulty in Origin in the chapter on geographical distribution of plants and animals during the glacial period ( Origin , pp. 379–81). CD refers to the letters Hooker sent him during his expedition to the Himalayas, 1848– …
From Henry Holland 2 January 1865
Summary
Thanks for Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].
T. S. Cobbold’s book on the Entozoa [1864].
Remarks on development of the tapeworm.
Author: | Henry Holland, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Jan 1865 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 245 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4735 |
To J. D. Hooker 28 March 1849
Summary
CD’s health and his father’s death have delayed his answer. Describes J. M. Gully’s water-cure.
JDH’s Galapagos papers [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 20 (1851): 163–233] have excellent discussion of geographical distribution, but why no general treatment of affinities?
CD’s views on clay-slate laminae.
Turmoil in Royal Society between naturalists and physicists.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 28 Mar 1849 |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 113 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1236 |
To J. D. Hooker 26 November [1864]
Summary
CD’s Lythrum paper has given him as much satisfaction as working out complemental males in cirripedes.
Response to award of Copley Medal.
Letters from Germany and France support natural selection.
Now that climbing plants are done, CD asks for Drosera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 26 Nov [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 254a–c |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4682 |
From J. D. Hooker [before 7 March 1855]
Summary
CD’s tabulation of colonists curious but explicable.
Working on Tasmanian flora; contemplating general essay on Australian distribution: Tasmania and Australia same alpine species; Swan River flora very peculiar and quite distinct from New South Wales.
Trying to establish new journal at Linnean.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 7 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 216–17 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1638 |
From J. D. Hooker [17 February 1865]
Summary
Why botanists will not subscribe to Falconer’s bust with enthusiasm.
Scott has been offered curatorship at Calcutta Botanic Garden.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [17 Feb 1865] |
Classmark: | DAR 102: 10–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4773 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … vol. 4, letters from J. D. Hooker, 13 October 1848 , 3 February 1849 , and 6 and 7 …
- … J. D. Hooker, 15 [February 1865] ). For two additional memorials made to Falconer, see the letter from George Busk, 20 February 1865 , n.4. Although Falconer had been superintendent of the botanic garden in Saharanpur, north-west India, from 1832 to 1842, and superintendent of the botanic garden in Calcutta and professor of botany at the Calcutta Medical College from 1848 …
To J. D. Hooker 11 August [1855]
Summary
Has left a book from Henslow for JDH at Athenaeum.
When Asa Gray wrote, did he send marked sheets [of his Manual of botany]?
Has just made out "new & wonderful" specific character between two of his pigeon breeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 11 Aug [1855] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence DC/35/129) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1738 |
From C. F. Claus 24 January 1869
Summary
Sends a paper on reproductive modes of Leptodera ["Organisation und Fortpflanzen von Leptodera", Schr. Ges. Beförd. Naturw. Marburg (1869)].
Criticises Ernst Haeckel’s work as too unripe and enthusiastic.
Asks CD for some specimens of cirripedes in pupal stage for a work in progress.
Author: | Carl Friedrich Claus |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Jan 1869 |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 176 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6575 |
letter | (115) |
Darwin, C. R. | (69) |
Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
Gray, Asa | (4) |
Blyth, Edward | (3) |
Anderson Henry, Isaac | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (45) |
Hooker, J. D. | (34) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Henslow, J. S. | (3) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (114) |
Hooker, J. D. | (57) |
Gray, Asa | (6) |
Lyell, Charles | (5) |
Blyth, Edward | (3) |