To Daniel Oliver 3 November [1860]
Summary
DO’s candidacy for Professorship of Botany [at University College, London].
Henrietta’s health is better.
Paper in Botanische Zeitung [T. Nitschke, "Über die Reizbarkeit der Blätter von Drosera rotundifolia", 18: 229–34, 237–45, 245–50] missed leading point that plants close longer over animal substances. Carbonate of ammonia works on Lemna and Euphorbia roots.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 3 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 24 (EH 88206008) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2975 |
To Daniel Oliver 7 November [1860]
Summary
Congratulations on Professorship.
Homologies between Drosera and Dionaea. Carbonate of ammonia on roots. Wants W. H. Fitch to make drawings of Dionaea. Will copy minute structure of hairs from Trécul [see 2965].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 7 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 25 (EH 88206009) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2977 |
To Daniel Oliver 16 November [1860]
Summary
One thirty-thousandth of a grain of human hair inflects a single Drosera hair. Astonished by his results so he is not publishing until next summer. [Not published until 1875, Insectivorous plants. See ch. 2 for observations on inflection.]
Wants to study effects of acids on live Dionaea. Oliver should do their anatomy. Corresponding with chemical physiologists about carbonate of ammonia on roots.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 16 Nov [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 26 (EH 88206010) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2985 |
To Daniel Oliver [21 November 1860]
Summary
The plant CD’s father called "flycatcher" was not Asclepias.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | [21 Nov 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 27 (EH) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2987 |
To Daniel Oliver 20 December [1860]
Summary
Requests date of [C. S.] Rafinesque[-Schmaltz], New flora of North America, pt 1 [1836].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 20 Dec [1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 28 (EH 88206011) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3027 |
To Daniel Oliver 26 February [1861]
Summary
Praise for DO’s paper on Hamamelidaceae ["On Sycopis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 83–9, read 15 Mar 1860]. Everything points to its being a "bankrupt" family.
Hydropathy at Malvern may take him from Drosera. Requests Dionaea and Cypripedium.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 26 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 39 (EH 88206022) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3072 |
To Daniel Oliver 23 March [1861]
Summary
CD will publish on Primula [Collected papers 2: 45–63]. Will DO ask W. H. Fitch to make woodcuts of "pin" and "non-pin" primroses [i.e., long-styled and short-styled forms]? Encloses a sketch.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 23 Mar [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 4 (EH 88205988); Christie’s Images (Christie’s (dealers) 11 November 1998, lot 30) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3097 |
To Daniel Oliver 1 April [1861]
Summary
CD never dreamed primroses did not abound with DO; apologises for trouble and sends flowers.
Will repay DO for cost of Cypripedium and for the Dionaea, if any can be got.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 1 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.243) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3106 |
To Daniel Oliver 4 April [1861]
Summary
Primula sibirica seems to be the only non-dimorphic species. Has made over one hundred Primula crosses.
Regrets Henslow’s illness.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 4 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 29 (EH 88206012) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3110 |
To Daniel Oliver 23 April [1861]
Summary
Congratulations on DO’s marriage.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 23 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | Newcastle University Special Collections (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive GB186 SW/6/3) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3125F |
To Daniel Oliver 1 May [1861]
Summary
Thanks W. H. Fitch for drawing for the Primula paper. Death of experimental plants delays publication.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 1 May [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 7 (EH 88205991) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3133 |
To Daniel Oliver 27 May [1861]
Summary
Requests that exotic species of Vinca, which never set seed at Kew, be fertilised by pressing a fine bristle between anthers as a moth would its proboscis.
Asks that Primula farinosa be sent.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 27 May [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 8 (EH 88205992) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3161 |
To Daniel Oliver 11 September [1861]
Summary
Has put Drosera off while amusing himself with Primula and orchids.
Dionaea is prettily adapted to weight detection.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 11 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 30, 66 (EH 88206013, EH 88206049) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3251 |
To Daniel Oliver 8 October [1861]
Summary
Asks DO to look for nectar in Stanhopea saccata labellum. CD’s theory predicts nectar should be present, but afraid there is none.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 8 Oct [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 31 (EH 88206014) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3279 |
To Daniel Oliver 30 November [1861]
Summary
Requests that DO examine enclosed microscope slides of Acropera ovules, to confirm CD’s opinion that females are non-functional.
Can DO comment on disagreement between Robert Brown and John Lindley over the number of Acropera carpels?
O. Heer’s Atlantis theory vs CD’s hypothesis of a migration north during warm periods.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 30 Nov [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 2 (EH 88205986) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3333 |
To Daniel Oliver 7 December [1861]
Summary
Trusts DO’s opinion on Acropera ovules.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 7 Dec [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 3 (EH 88205987) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3340 |
To Daniel Oliver 9 April [1861]
Summary
Asks DO to identify enclosed Fumaria or Corydalis flower, with springing hood adaptation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 9 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 6 (EH 88205990) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3499 |
To Daniel Oliver 12 [April 1862]
Summary
DO’s observations on polymorphism in Primula and Campanula. CD recognises three classes of dimorphism, as in Primula, Thymus, and Campanula and violets.
DO’s Campanula paper and Royal Institution lecture [Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1858–62): 431–3].
CD’s interest in Fumariaceae from A. Gray’s comments on "selfing".
Bees bite holes in flowers when same species grows in high density.
Organisation of CD’s notes.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 12 [Apr 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 1 (EH 88205985) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3504 |
To Daniel Oliver 20 [April 1862]
Summary
Requests Oxalis acetosella, which he suspects is dimorphic.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 20 [Apr 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 56 (EH 88206039) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3512 |
To Daniel Oliver 24 April [1862]
Summary
Thanks for Oxalis. Only experimentation will show whether disproportion of long- to short-styled flowers is a functional dimorphism.
Case of aestival flowers is very curious.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 24 Apr [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 47 (EH 88206030) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3516 |