To Francis Trevelyan Buckland 26 January [1863]
Summary
Asks FB’s help in identifying an article in The Field about the fins of fishes growing again after being cut off, and inquiring whether he has heard of the re-growth of organs in the mammalia or birds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Francis Trevelyan (Frank) Buckland |
Date: | 26 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Christie’s, London (dealers) (23 June 1993, lot 146) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3948F |
To Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener [before 27 January 1863]
Summary
Remarks on the influence of pollen of one species or variety on the seed and fruit of another while still attached to the female plant. Refers to a remarkable case previously given by D. Beaton and asks whether Beaton will repeat the details.
[CD’s letter is followed by notes by D. Beaton in which he answers CD’s question, dissociating himself from some of his remarks, and in particular denying C. F. v. Gärtner’s claim that colour of one variety of pea can be changed by the direct action of the pollen of a different variety.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Journal of Horticulture |
Date: | [before 27 Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener n.s. 4 (1863): 70 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3951 |
To J. D. Hooker 30 January [1863]
Summary
Naudin has not answered CD’s letter.
Reactions of Candolle, Naudin, Decaisne, and Gaston de Saporta to Origin.
CD’s new hothouse.
CD’s Linum paper.
JDH’s work on Welwitschia.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 30 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 180 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3953 |
To Friedrich Rolle 30 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks FR for sketch of progress of evolutionary theory in Germany.
Compliments to Gustav Jäger.
Comments on FR’s book [Ch. Darwin’s Lehre (1863)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Friedrich Rolle |
Date: | 30 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Frankfurt (SNG-Archiv: Malakol.: Nachlass Rolle) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3954 |
To Roland Trimen 31 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks RT for his letter and MS.
Is astonished by the different forms of orchids he describes.
Urges RT to describe and experiment with two or three of the more distinct genera.
"I believe, or am inclined to believe in one or very few primordial forms, from community of structure and early embryonic resemblances in each great class."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 31 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 78) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3956 |
To Alphonse de Candolle 31 January [1863]
Summary
CD thinks that he believes in as much migration as AdeC, only he does not believe nearly so much in continental extensions. CD also believes more in modification in form though he suspects the difference is not so great.
Thanks AdeC for information on melons, oranges,
and Swiss lake-habitation discoveries.
CD is almost tired of his book on variation under domestication, for his knowledge is insufficient to treat the plant part well, but he has done so much that he will finish it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alphonse de Candolle |
Date: | 31 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Archives de la famille de Candolle (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3957 |
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 Thomas Rivers 1 February [1863]
Summary
Answers TR’s query about stomata.
CD will use "weeping trees" as an example of how inexplicable the laws of inheritance are, and asks for facts on character of seedlings.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 1 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | Sotheby’s (dealers) (23–4 July 1987) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3962 |
To John Joseph Briggs 2 February [1863]
Summary
Asks JJB for date of his article in the Field dealing with the regeneration of fishes’ fins; additional questions about the fish.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Joseph Briggs |
Date: | 2 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.286) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3963 |
To Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener [before 3 February 1863]
Summary
Answers D. Beaton’s criticism of Gärtner’s work, defending his results in crossing experiments and vindicating the memory of "one of the most laborious lovers of truth who ever lived".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Journal of Horticulture |
Date: | [before 3 Feb 1863] |
Classmark: | Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener n.s. 4 (1863): 93 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3966 |
To Charles Lyell 4 [February 1863]
Summary
Thanks CL for "the great book" [Antiquity of man (1863)].
Richard Owen "ought to be ostracised by every Naturalist in England".
CL’s book will "give the whole subject of change of species an enormous advance".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 4 [Feb 1863] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.287) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3967 |
To Charles Victor Naudin 7 February 1863
Summary
Thanks for informative letter of 2 February. CD is glad to have CVN’s opinion on the crossing of varieties of melons,
has made use of his memoir on the Cucurbitaceae ["Cucurbitacées cultivées au Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle en 1862", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 18 (1863): 159–208]
and anticipates with great interest his work on hybridisation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Victor Naudin |
Date: | 7 Feb 1863 |
Classmark: | Progressus rei botanicæ 4 (1913): 94 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3972 |
To T. H. Huxley [8 February 1863]
Summary
On six-fingered men: suspects increase confined to metacarpals and digits. Has asked James Paget to look it up.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | [8 Feb 1863] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 19) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3973 |
To W. D. Fox [10 February 1863]
Summary
Invites WDF to Down.
His stomach now so bad he cannot stay, even with close relations, for more than half an hour at a time.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | [10 Feb 1863] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 136) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3975 |
To Thomas Rivers [14 February 1863]
Summary
Delighted by curious case of inheritance in the weeping ash [cited in missing letter from TR] "which produced weeping seedlings and itself lost the weeping peculiarity!" Wishes he could get authentic information on the weeping elm.
What TR says of seedlings conquering each other well illustrates struggle for existence and natural selection.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | [14 Feb 1863] |
Classmark: | 19th Century Shop (dealers) (catalogue 5, 1988) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3982 |
CD memorandum 14 February 1863
Summary
Agreement to cancel the bond of D. T. Ansted, dated 19 April 1855. Prof. Ansted is arranging to pay CD what he can.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | David Thomas Ansted |
Date: | 14 Feb 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 210.10: 24 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3985A |
To J. D. Hooker 15 February [1863]
Summary
Asa Gray on democracy of plants.
Requests plants for new hothouse. Transferring plants to Down in winter.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 181 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3986 |
To T. H. Huxley 16 February [1863]
Summary
It is not carpal or tarsal bones that are increased [in six-fingered men] but generally only the digits and metacarpals.
Pectoral fins of fish and sharks.
Asks THH to check P. M. Roget’s statement that there is a rudiment of a sixth digit in frogs.
[P.S. missing from original.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 16 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 200) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3987 |
To Roland Trimen 16 February [1863]
Summary
Further discusses RT’s observations on Cape [of Good Hope] orchids and asks whether it would be possible for him to send some specimens to Kew.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 16 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 55) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3988 |
To Horace Benge Dobell 16 February [1863]
Summary
Thanks HBD for his lectures On the germs and vestiges of disease [1861].
Thinks his reasoning that the V. M. F. ("force exhibited in the operations of life") is not a "given quantity" is satisfactory.
How far the conditions of life affect the forms of organic life puzzles CD more than any other part of his subject. Thinks he may have underrated its importance in Origin.
Asks for source of the quotation on regeneration in HBD’s work.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Horace Benge Dobell |
Date: | 16 Feb [1863] |
Classmark: | Barton L. Smith MD (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3990 |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Darwin, Emma | (1) |
Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (37) |
Scott, John | (18) |
Huxley, T. H. | (10) |
Rivers, Thomas | (10) |
Gray, Asa | (9) |
Darwin, C. R. | (233) |
Hooker, J. D. | (37) |
Scott, John | (18) |
Huxley, T. H. | (10) |
Rivers, Thomas | (10) |