To J. D. Hooker 27 May [1855]
Summary
CD’s seed paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 1: 255–8];
CD attacks Forbes’s "Atlantis".
Considers solutions to floating problem. Decides to test Azores seeds.
Photographs and drawings of CD.
Plant movement experiments with Hedysarum gyrans.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 27 May [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 132 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1688 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … See letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 21 May [1855]. CD refers to Edward Forbes’s …
- … results were disappointing to CD. See letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 21 November [1855]. …
- … facing p. 128. See letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 21 May [1855], n. 2. CD’s interest …
- … See letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1855] , n. 5. Hewett Cottrell Watson had botanised …
To T. C. Eyton 9 December [1855]
Summary
Vexed he cannot find head of [Chinese] dog.
First took up skeletonising to see how much young pigeons and poultry differed from the old.
Wishes to ascertain differences in skeletons of pigeons, poultry, covey birds, and rabbits. William Yarrell has shown CD breastbones. W. B. Tegetmeier has shown him skulls of fowls.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
Date: | 9 Dec [1855] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.117) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1793 |
To M. T. Masters 25 April [1860]
Summary
Glad to hear of MTM’s papers [? "On a peloria and semidouble flower of Ophrys aranifera, Huds.", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 207–11 and "Observations on the morphology and anatomy of the genus Restio, Linn.", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 211–55].
CD doubts the value, for origin of species, of parallels between peloria in "distinct groups".
Gärtner proved the stigma can select its own pollen from a mixture of foreign pollens. But much evidence shows varieties of same species are prepotent over a plant’s own pollen.
MTM’s father [William] believes that variation goes on for a long time once it has commenced.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
Date: | 25 Apr [1860] |
Classmark: | Shrewsbury School Archives (SR/Darwin box 1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4818 |
From John Davy 30 January 1855
Summary
Responds to CD’s letter. The ova of Salmonidae exposed to air, if kept moist, will stay alive up to 72 hours.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Jan 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 227 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1634 |
From B. J. Sulivan 29 September 1881
Summary
Gives further details on his grapes.
Tells of his recent movements and state of health.
Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 Sept 1881 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 315 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13363 |
To J. D. Hooker [after 20 January 1857]
Summary
CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.
CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.
CD’s method.
Diverging affinities in isolated genera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [after 20 Jan 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 190 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2033 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … 5 June [1855] , and letter from J. D. …
- … on this question ( Correspondence vol. 5, letters to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1855] and …
- … letter from Asa Gray addressed to both William Jackson Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker dated 5 January 1857 ( Asa Gray , Kew Correspondence 1839/73 (137/8), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). CD refers to Hooker’s criticism of Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique raisonnée ( A. de Candolle 1855 ) …
- … 1855] ). Wollaston 1854 and 1856. As Thomas Vernon Wollaston remarked in the introduction of Insecta Maderensia , ‘the total absence of numerous genera (and even of whole families) which are looked upon as all but universal, constitutes one of the most striking features of our entomological fauna. ’ ( Wollaston 1854 , p. x). See also letter …
To Asa Gray 8 June [1855]
Summary
Suggests AG append ranges to the species in the new edition of his Manual.
Is interested in comparing the flora of U. S. with that of Britain and wishes to know the proportions to the whole of the great leading families and the numbers of species within genera. Would welcome information on which species AG considers to be "close" in the U. S.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 8 June [1855] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (2) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1695 |
From Edward Blyth 7 September [1855]
Summary
Comments on the ease with which different species of Felis can be tamed.
Asian species of wild cattle.
Variation in colour of jackals.
Discusses the difficulties of differentiating between varieties and species. EB recommends Herman Schlegel’s definition of species [in Essay on the physiognomy of serpents, trans. T. S. Traill (1843)]. Problems of defining species of wolves and squirrels. Pigeons and doves afford an illustration of "clusters of species, varieties, or races". Various pigeons have local species in different parts of India and Burma, some of which interbreed where their ranges cross; as do the local species of Coracias [see Natural selection, p. 259].
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Sept [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A51–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1752 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … is now missing. See letter from Edward Blyth, 22–3 August 1855 , n. 6. Felis himalayanus …
- … the fishing cat. See letter from Edward Blyth, 22–3 August 1855 , n. 7. Dieffenbach …
- … CUL, is annotated. See letter from Edward Blyth, 21 April 1855 , n. 22. Blyth 1847c . …
- … Lambert 1804 . See letter from Edward Blyth, 21 April 1855 , n. 30. Colebrooke 1805 . …
To T. H. Huxley 13 September [1854]
Summary
Thanks for help on presentation copies of Living Cirripedia, vol. 2.
Suggests he examine cementing apparatus of Balanus.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 13 Sept [1854] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 16) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1592 |
To J. D. Hooker 6 November [1855]
Summary
Naudin’s theory, in J. Decaisne’s review of Flora Indica, of subspecies descended from a single stock only adds to the confusion. John Lindley and M. J. Berkeley cut down species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 6 Nov [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 153 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1773 |
From Edward Blyth 8 December 1855
Summary
What does CD think of A. R. Wallace’s paper in the Annals & Magazine of Natural History ["On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species", n.s. 16 (1855): 184–96]? EB considers it good on the whole.
Japanned variety of peacock.
Regional variations in bird species.
EB has little faith in the aboriginal wildness of the Chillingham cattle.
Races of humped cattle of India, China, and Africa.
Indian and Malayan gigantic squirrels, with various races remaining true to their colour, would afford capital data for Wallace, as would the local varieties of certain molluscs. Has Wallace’s lucid collation of facts unsettled CD’s ideas regarding the persistence of species?
Bengal hybrid race of geese is very uniform in colour and as prolific as the European tame goose [see Natural selection, p. 439].
Will see what he can do for CD with regard to domestic pigeons.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Dec 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A104–A107 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1792 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … the Ayeen Akbery . See letter from Edward Blyth, 21 April 1855 , for his earlier comments …
- … 1855d , pp. 525–6. See letter from Edward Blyth, 22–3 August 1855 , n. 4. This may be a …
- … trans. 1783–6. See letter to Edward Blyth, 4 August 1855 , for Blyth’s first mention of …
- … Library–CUL). See letter from Edward Blyth, [1–8 October 1855] , n. 42. Buchanan 1838 . …
- … letter, but there is no indication when he first read it. CD’s copy of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History , in which Wallace 1855 …
From J. D. Hooker [before 17 March 1855]
Summary
JDH criticises C. J. F. Bunbury’s paper on Madeira [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 1 (1857): 1–35].
Absence of Ophrys on Madeira suggests to JDH a sequence in creation of groups.
Why are flightless insects common in desert?
Australian endemism.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 17 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 210–13 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1644 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1855] . George Bentham . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 11 [December …
- … F. Bunbury 1857). See letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1855] . CD made the following note …
- … the Linnean Society . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1855] , nn. 4 and 5. A. K. …
- … p. 159). See letter from J. D. Hooker, [before 7 March 1855] . CD wished to borrow books …
- … letter which are headed ‘March 17 th ’ (see n. 4, below). The reference is to Charles James Fox Bunbury’s paper on Madeira and Tenerife, read at the Linnean Society on 6 March and 3 April 1855 ( …
To J. D. Hooker 15 January [1867]
Summary
More comments on "Insular floras": community of peculiar genera in the Atlantic islands descended from European plants now extinct.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 Jan [1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 5–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5361 |
From T. H. Huxley 18 April 1864
Summary
No doubt that Owen wrote "Oken" and the archetype book, which appeared in its second edition in French.
Pressures of work and family.
Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Apr 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 301 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4465 |
From J. D. Hooker [6–9 June 1855]
Summary
Finds Forbes’s continental theories, migration, and double creation are all unsatisfactory explanations of geographical distribution of plants.
Is currently working on problems of sea transport of plant species.
European plants on Australian Alps only explicable by double creations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [6–9 June 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 90–3 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1694 |
To J. D. Hooker 12 April [1857]
Summary
Thanks JDH for response on variation. Studying variations that seem correlated with environment, e.g., north vs south, ascending mountains.
CD’s weed garden: observations on slugs killing seedlings.
Seed-salting. One-seventh of the plants of any country could be transported 924 miles by sea and would germinate.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 12 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 192 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2075 |
From John Davy 10 January 1856
Summary
On the vitality of the ova of the Salmonidae at different stages of development.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Jan 1856 |
Classmark: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 8 (1856–7): 27–33 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1819A |
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 Edgar Leopold Layard 9 December 1855
Summary
Is collecting facts for Variation; would be grateful for skins of local [Cape of Good Hope] breeds of pigeons, ducks, and poultry.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edgar Leopold Layard |
Date: | 9 Dec 1855 |
Classmark: | Auckland Public Library (Grey collection GL D8 (3)) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1794 |
letter | (602) |
people | (16) |
bibliography | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (389) |
Hooker, J. D. | (44) |
Blyth, Edward | (17) |
Watson, H. C. | (11) |
Gray, Asa | (7) |
Darwin, C. R. | (205) |
Hooker, J. D. | (97) |
Lyell, Charles | (26) |
Fox, W. D. | (20) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (20) |
Darwin, C. R. | (594) |
Hooker, J. D. | (141) |
Lyell, Charles | (32) |
Gray, Asa | (25) |
Fox, W. D. | (22) |
1837 | (1) |
1842 | (1) |
1843 | (1) |
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1882 | (1) |
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Biogeography
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Observations aboard the Beagle During his five year journey around the world on HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin encountered many different landscapes and an enormous variety of flora and fauna. Some of his most…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Observations aboard the Beagle …
Schools Gallery: Using Darwin’s letters in the classroom
Summary
English| History| Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead the way Year 9 English pupils at Ulverston Victoria High School spent several weeks studying Darwin’s letters, including comparing sections from Darwin’s ‘Voyage of the Beagle’ to letters…
Matches: 1 hits
- … English | History | Science English Pupils in Cumbria lead …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
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 …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand …
Darwin's bad days
Summary
Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and experimenting, even Darwin had some bad days. These times when nothing appeared to be going right are well illustrated by the following quotations from his letters:
Matches: 1 hits
- … Despite being a prolific worker who had many successes with his scientific theorising and …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Specialism | Experiment | Microscopes | Collecting | Theory Letter writing …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Variation under domestication
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A fascination with domestication Throughout his working life, Darwin retained an interest in the history, techniques, practices, and processes of domestication. Artificial selection, as practiced by plant and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment A fascination with domestication …
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
Summary
On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher who had studied medicine in London and Paris in the early 1840s, visited Down to consult with Darwin about his ill health. In 1863 Chapman started to treat…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 20 May 1865, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary that John Chapman, a prominent London publisher …
Darwin’s Photographic Portraits
Summary
Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the …
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
- … The ‘historical sketch’ printed as a preface to the American edition ( Origin US ed., pp …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but …