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 |
To Robert Patterson 10 March [1857]
Summary
Asks RP’s help in procuring a specimen of a real Irish rabbit, L. veomicule [Lepus vermicula]?.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Robert Patterson |
Date: | 10 Mar [1857] |
Classmark: | W. E. Praeger 1935, p. 714 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2062 |
To J. D. Hooker 15 March [1857]
Summary
Separation of sexes in trees [U. S.].
Do plants offer positive evidence for "continuous land" theory?
Protean genera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 Mar [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 193 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2066 |
To J. D. Hooker [21 March 1857]
Summary
Ranges of species in large vs small genera: Asa Gray’s compilation fits CD’s expectation.
CD studies seedling mortality in his weed garden.
JDH’s work on Indian flora.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [21 Mar 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 192a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2067 |
To Edward Sabine 16 March [1857]
Summary
Would rather not serve on Royal Society committee [for a North American exploring expedition]. Suggests subjects for geological investigation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Sabine |
Date: | 16 Mar [1857] |
Classmark: | The Royal Society (MM4: 39) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2241 |
To John Lubbock [6 March 1857]
Summary
Voting to elect JL [a member of Athenaeum].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
Date: | [6 Mar 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 71 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2392 |
To Hugh Falconer [7 March 1857]
Summary
Thinking about HF’s paper on Plagiaulax [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck mammals are marsupials.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
Date: | [7 Mar 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 144: 26 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3791 |
letter | (7) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Falconer, Hugh | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Lubbock, John | (1) |
Patterson, Robert | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
Falconer, Hugh | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Lubbock, John | (1) |