To ? 7 December [1855–7?]
Summary
Concerning specimens he wants collected in the Azores.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 7 Dec [1855-7] |
Classmark: | DAR 249: 93 (photocopy) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13867A |
CD memorandum [December 1855]
Summary
Requests skins of domestic breeds or races of poultry, pigeons, rabbits, cats, and dogs from any unfrequented region. [Attached is a list of people to whom CD has written for pigeon and poultry skins.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | [Dec 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 206: 34–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1812 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 [June 1855]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 23 [June 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 138 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1702 |
From Thomas Bell Salter 25 June 1855
Summary
Discusses hybrid plants he has raised, particularly hybrids between Geum urbanum and G. rivale, which are very fertile and exhibit great variability. [See Natural selection, p. 102.]
Author: | Thomas Bell Salter |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 June 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 16 (fragile) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1703 |
To W. D. Fox 27 [June 1855]
Summary
Several seeds have come up after 65–70 days’ immersion in salt water.
Has now a fine collection of pigeons and intends to cross them systematically.
Needs information on mongrel crosses of animals of all kinds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 27 [June 1855] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 94) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1704 |
To J. S. Henslow 27 June [1855]
Summary
Asks whether JSH considers Lychnis diurna and L. vespertina species or varieties.
Asks for help with his work on hybrids.
Would like JSH to go over London catalogue of British plants, marking "close species", i.e., those he considers real species but which are very closely allied. Withholds his motive as it might influence the result.
Has found Agrostis with worms in every germen and no stamens on stigma.
Now has 46 kinds of peas all growing together.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 27 June [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A28–A30 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1705 |
From J. S. Henslow 29 June 1855
Summary
Red and white campions: JSH regards them as races, not species; a flesh-coloured intermediate exists.
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 June 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 177 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1706 |
From Asa Gray 30 June 1855
Summary
Sends a list of "close" species from his Manual of botany.
Hopes Hooker or CD will write an essay on species. Discusses some of the difficulties of defining botanical species.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 June 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 92a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1707 |
To J. S. Henslow 2 July [1855]
Summary
Sends a list of plants with stamps to pay the Hitcham girls who will collect seeds for him.
Describes his work with seeds in salt water.
For his experiments he would like seeds collected from plants that grow both near Hitcham and in the Azores.
Explains again what JSH should do in marking "close species".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 2 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A31–A35 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1708 |
From Thomas Carew Hunt 2 July 1855
Summary
Answers queries on Azores fauna and flora.
Author: | Thomas Carew Hunt |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 July 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 282 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1709 |
To M. J. Berkeley 3 July [1855]
Summary
Reports success of seed-soaking experiments. Celery and onion germinate after 85 days’ immersion.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 3 July [1855] |
Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/44) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1710 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 July [1855]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 5 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 140 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1711 |
To J. S. Henslow 7 July [1855]
Summary
Thanks JSH for seeds.
Clarifies his request about marking [London] catalogue [of British plants] – JSH is to mark those he thinks really are species, but which are very closely allied to some other species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 7 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A36–A37, A114 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1712 |
To G. R. Waterhouse 8 July [1855]
Summary
Asks GRW if there is any easy systematic work on Lepidoptera for his sons. Considers making out the names from descriptions fine practice for the intellect; mere collecting is idle work.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Date: | 8 July [1855] |
Classmark: | McGill University Library, Department of Rare Books |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1713 |
From J. D. Hooker [8 July 1855]
Summary
Australian Leguminosae problem: of 900 species not ten are common to southwest and southeast. No migration; hence either creation or variation.
Himalayan thistles: graded intermediates between large and small English species, "shakes species to their foundations". Similarity of CD’s and his views on species.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [8 July 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 192–3 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1714 |
From H. C. Watson 11 July [1855]
Summary
Returns CD’s list of Azores plants with information on the distribution of the species added. Encloses a list, extracted from CD’s list, of those plants common to Europe and the Azores that were probably not introduced by man.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 27 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1715 |
To J. S. Henslow 11 July [1855]
Summary
Asks for advice on establishing a control group in his experiments to produce sports and varieties of Lychnis diurna.
Seeks seeds of wild Dianthus for hybridising and producing varieties.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 11 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A38–A39 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1716 |
To J. D. Hooker 14 [July 1855]
Summary
CD experiments: sowing seeds in fields; "breaking" seeds’ constitution with coloured light; plant hybridisation. Compiling works on hybridism.
Respect for W. B. Carpenter.
Note on "nectar secreting" to Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 1: 258–9].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 14 [July 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 141 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1717 |
To J. S. Henslow 14 July [1855]
Summary
Sends a list of 22 plants that grow at Hitcham and in the Azores and are, according to H. C. Watson, least likely to have been imported [by man]. Will pay the little girls of Hitcham liberally to collect the seeds for his experiments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | 14 July [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: A40–A41, A57 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1718 |
To J. D. Hooker 18 [July 1855]
Summary
Has read a paper, presumably by JDH, using the Madeiran flora to argue against Forbes’s doctrine.
JDH asked how far CD will go in attributing common descent; he intends to show "the facts & arguments for & against the common descent of species of same genus; & then show how far the same arguments tell for or against forms, more & more widely different".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 18 [July 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 142 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1719 |
letter | (189) |
Darwin, C. R. | (140) |
Blyth, Edward | (12) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Davy, John | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (49) |
Hooker, J. D. | (28) |
Henslow, J. S. | (17) |
Fox, W. D. | (12) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (10) |