To W. E. Darwin [25 April 1855]
Summary
The new pigeon house is nearly complete.
CD is busy trying all sorts of experiments on salting seeds.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | [25 Apr 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1660 |
To J. D. Hooker 7 April [1855]
Summary
CD has begun seed-salting experiments. Wants JDH to write which seeds he expects to be easily killed [in salt water].
CD’s idea that coal-plants lived in salt water like mangroves made JDH savage.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 7 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 127 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1661 |
To M. J. Berkeley 7 April [1855]
Summary
Asks for a pea variety for an experiment.
Discusses C. F. v. Gärtner’s results [in Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849)]. Criticises Gärtner’s belief that hybrids are always less fertile than their parents.
Asks about MJB’s experiments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 7 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/41) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1662 |
To M. J. Berkeley 11 April [1855]
Summary
Thanks MJB for peas.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 11 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Shropshire Archives (SA 6001/134/42) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1665 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle 11 April [1855]
Summary
CD describes his experiments on the effects on germination of the immersion of seeds in sea-water. Hopes to throw light on the distribution of plants. Asks readers of Gardeners’ Chronicle to inform him whether such experiments have already been tried and what class or species of seeds they suppose would be particularly liable to be killed by sea-water.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | 11 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 15, 14 April 1855, p. 242 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1666 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 April [1855]
Summary
Pea self-fertilisation: has forty-five varieties growing side by side.
Describes seed-salting experiments: e.g., immersion in tank filled with snow. Reports some successful germinations.
Made list of naturalised plants from Asa Gray’s Manual [of Botany] to calculate the proportions of the great families.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 128 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1667 |
To T. H. Huxley 18 April [1855]
Summary
Thomas Bell thinks John Lindley superior for Royal Society Medal. CD agrees, but demurs at Medal going to same branch of science two years in succession.
Perplexed about Albany Hancock’s qualifications compared with J. O. Westwood’s.
Death of H. De la Beche.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 18 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 31) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1668 |
To J. D. Hooker 19 April [1855]
Summary
Rejects JDH’s suggestion that seed-salting experiments be conducted on huge scale. Only wishes to demonstrate possibility of sea transport, not establishment of any particular insular flora. More seed results.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 19 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 129 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1669 |
To J. D. Hooker 24 April [1855]
Summary
More on seed-salting. JDH’s admission that he expected seeds to die in a week gives CD "a nice little triumph".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 24 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 130 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1671 |
To John Lubbock 24 April [1855]
Summary
Praise for JL’s interesting paper ["On the freshwater entomostraca of South America", Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. n.s. 3 (1854–6): 232–46].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
Date: | 24 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 263: 11 (EH 88206460) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1673 |
To Asa Gray 25 April [1855]
Summary
Is collecting facts on variation; questions AG on the alpine flora of the U. S.
Sends a list of plants from AG’s Manual of botany [1848] and asks him to append the ranges of the species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 25 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1674 |
To W. D. Fox 26 April [1855]
Summary
Explains more clearly what he is looking for in his work on poultry: relative variation at different ages, the effect of disuse on different parts, breeding between wild and domestic, and degree of fertility of "mongrels of very diverse races".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 26 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 89) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1675 |
To Leonard Horner 27 April [1855]
Summary
Regrets that he has not published his information on superficial beds except in abbreviated form, on p. 143 of Volcanic islands.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Leonard Horner |
Date: | 27 Apr [1855] |
Classmark: | Kinnordy MS (private collection) (Sold at Sotheby’s (dealers), 9 July 2018, lot 373) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1676 |
letter | (13) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Berkeley, M. J. | (2) |
Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
Fox, W. D. | (1) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Berkeley, M. J. | (2) |
Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
Fox, W. D. | (1) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (1) |
Horner, Leonard | (1) |
Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
Lubbock, John | (1) |