To John Scott 1 and 3 August [1863]
Summary
Thanks JS for orchid paper [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50]. JS presents excellent new facts on sterility of orchids.
His argument that coloured primroses are not hybrids is good, as is idea of discovering primrose parentage by breeding for colours.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 1 and 3 Aug 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B24, B27–8, B70; DAR 147: 455 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4260 |
To L. E. Becker 2 August [1863]
Summary
Thanks LEB for the Lychnis seed [see 4258], which he will plant in the hope of fertilising the little ovaria.
Comments on the two forms of Linum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Lydia Ernestine Becker |
Date: | 2 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | Charterhouse Archives (ACC 013) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4260A |
To J. D. Hooker 3 August [1863]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 3 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 201 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4261 |
To Asa Gray 4 August [1863]
Summary
Anticipated AG’s attitude on design in orchids. Does he not think that the variations that gave rise to fancy pigeon varieties were accidental?
Has been working hard at Lythrum
and spontaneous movements of tendrils.
Defends Drosera as a "sagacious animal" but does not know whether he will ever publish on it.
Comments on political situation in U. S.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 4 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (83) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4262 |
To Alphonse de Candolle 4 August [1863]
Summary
Asks AdeC to observe two species of Lythrum to see whether they are dimorphic as stated by Vaucher. CD can find no trace of this in dried specimens he has examined; "if either species present any difference in length of pistil and stamens, it is most likely that three forms should be presented".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alphonse de Candolle |
Date: | 4 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | Archives de la famille de Candolle (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4263 |
To J. D. Hooker 12–13 August [1863]
Summary
Doubts Decaisne’s report of larkspur self-fertilisation.
Enthusiastically observes climbing plants. Needs to know how novel his observations are. Finds R. J. H. Dutrochet has made similar observations, so he has wasted some time. [See Climbing plants, p. 1 n.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 12–13 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 202 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4266 |
To Charles Lyell 14 August [1863]
Summary
Congratulates CL on finding Arctic shells.
Comments on paper by E. B. Hunt ["On the origin, growth, substructure and chronology of the Florida reef", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 35 (1863): 197–210].
Mentions J. D. Dana’s health.
George Bentham’s statement on species [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix].
Praises Bates’s book [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 14 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.296) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4267 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 15 August 1863]
Summary
Reports on the appearance, in a gravel walk near his house, of an orchid, Epipactis latifolia, never seen in his neighbourhood before. Asks whether a seed could have been blown from a distance and germinated during a season when the walk was neglected.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 15 Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 15 August 1863, p. 773 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4269 |
To Thomas Rivers 17 August [1863]
Summary
The almond-tree TR gave him produced no fruit, but the Chinese double peach has three. Asks for ripe almond fruits and any odd peaches, to compare the stones.
Asks about modification in fruit or foliage in any fruit-trees from being grafted,
and about seedlings of pears and wheat said to have been found in hedges and woods.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 17 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 85 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4270 |
To J. D. Hooker 25 [August 1863]
Summary
CD’s illness: he is vomiting "vegetable" cells.
Dutrochet has published the best of CD’s observations on tendrils [see Climbing plants, p. 1 n.].
Lyell has found Joshua Trimmer’s Arctic shells on Moel Tryfan.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 25 [Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 204 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4274 |
To Hugh Falconer [25–6 August 1863]
Summary
Thanks for information about Pliocene mammal. Interested in relating process of formation to duration of the species. Oswald Heer’s view that species suddenly formed surely false.
Bad summer with much sickness. Going to Malvern [for water-cure] for a month.
Muddled over phyllotaxy and made out nothing.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
Date: | [25–6 Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 144: 32 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4277 |
To Roland Trimen 27 August [1863]
Summary
Discusses methods of pollination in orchids.
Thinks RT should investigate Physianthus to see if it requires insect aid for fertilisation as the Asclepiadaceae do.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 27 Aug [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 57) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4279 |
To [Gardeners’ Chronicle] [after 27 August 1863]
Summary
[Roland] Trimen of the Cape of Good Hope sends evidence that a moth [Achaea chamaeleon] is capable of perforating the skin of a peach with its delicate proboscis. Have any readers observed moths or butterflies sucking any fruit of which the skin was not previously broken?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [after 27 Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 70: 172 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4279F |
To J. D. Hooker [28 August 1863]
Summary
Admits, at last, that New Zealand must have been connected to some continent, but not Australia.
Climbing plants: asks for more plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [28 Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 205 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4280 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 29 August 1863]
Summary
On the cruelty of setting steel traps to catch vermin. Requests suggestions for putting an end to the practice. [This item is mentioned in Correspondence 11: 781 n.6. (Appendix IX)]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 29 Aug 1863] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle, 29 August 1863, pp. 821–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4282 |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (3) |
Becker, L. E. | (1) |
Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
Falconer, Hugh | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (3) |
Becker, L. E. | (1) |
Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |