To T. H. Huxley 23 January [1863 or 1864]
Summary
THH’s efforts to obtain Copley Medal for CD fail. Thanks THH for kind words of sympathy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 23 Jan [1863-4] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 254) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2662 |
To [Friedrich Emil Suchsland] [after 19 January 1863]
Summary
Returns book by Friedrich Rolle. Author has sent copies.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Friedrich Emil Suchsland |
Date: | [after 19 Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | J. A. Stargardt (dealers) (Catalogue 618, item 441) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3772 |
To Daniel Oliver 20 [January 1863]
Summary
Has been copying out references from Natural History Review [possibly D. Oliver, "The structure of the stem in dicotyledons; being references to the literature of the subject", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 298–329].
Suggests DO study high incidence of separate sexes in freshwater plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 20 [Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 38 (EH 88206021) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3776 |
To Thomas Henry Huxley 10 [January 1863]
Summary
CD overwhelmed by THH’s praise.
Agrees with his reservations about species theory but not wholly about sterility and gives his reasons for differing.
On Natural History Review, Hugh Falconer, and R. Owen.
Has written a review [Collected papers 2: 87–92] of H. W. Bates’s paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 495–566].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 10 [Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 183) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3852 |
To Asa Gray 2 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks AG for Cypripedium and Mitchella.
Plans to investigate pollination of Cypripedium.
Has finished Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105].
Would welcome facts on "bud-variations".
Hears that Cinchona is dimorphic.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 2 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (56) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3897 |
To J. D. Hooker 3 January [1863]
Summary
Indignant over Owen’s conduct as described in Hugh Falconer’s article on elephants ["On the American fossil elephant of the regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1863): 43–114].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 3 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 178 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3898 |
To John Lubbock 4 January [1863]
Summary
Praises JL’s article ["North American archaeology", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 1–26]
and Hugh Falconer on the American fossil elephant [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 43–114].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
Date: | 4 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 263: 58 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3900 |
To Hugh Falconer 5 [and 6] January [1863]
Summary
His admiration for HF’s paper on American fossil elephant.
Notes "temporary irruption of S. American forms into N. America".
Rejoices that HF has "smashed" case of Mastodon on Timor.
Shares HF’s anger at Owen.
He is eager to hear about fossil bird [Archaeopteryx].
Comments on criticisms of species theory by [Johann Andreas?] Wagner.
Describes research on fertilisation of Melastomataceae.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
Date: | 5 and 6 Jan 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 144: 29 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3901 |
To James Dwight Dana 7 January [1863]
Summary
Responds to JDD’s letter [3845].
Discusses his own poor health.
"Man is our great subject at present."
Lyell’s book [Antiquity of man (1863)] sold 4000 copies on day of sale.
"The fossil bird [Archaeopteryx] … is a grand case for me." Wishes a skeleton could be found in the "so-called red sandstone foot-step beds".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
Date: | 7 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3905 |
To Thomas Rivers 7 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks for parcel of shoots with several interesting cases of "bud-variation".
Asks for information about roses.
Strange that great changes in peaches are less rare than slight ones and no case seems recorded of new apples or pears or apricots by "bud-variation". "How ignorant we are!"
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 7 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 81 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3906 |
To John Scott 8 January [1863]
Summary
CD’s respect for JS’s indomitable work and interesting experiments increases steadily.
His gratitude for the primulas and the astonishing Gongora specimen.
Asks JS’s opinion about crossing a primrose with the pollen of a wild cowslip and of a cultivated polyanthus.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 8 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Transactions of the Hawick Archæological Society (1908): 67 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3908F |
To Thomas Rivers 11 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks for "rich and valuable" letter [missing].
Has read TR’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle ["Seedling fruits – plums", (1863): 27] – "a treasure to me".
Questions about seedling peaches that approach almonds.
Asks whether TR has ever observed varieties of plants growing close to other varieties for several generations without being affected by crossing.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 11 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 82 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3910 |
To Henry Walter Bates 12 January [1863]
Summary
Asa Gray will try to get HWB’s paper reviewed.
Also mentions that he (CD) wrote a short review of it for Natural History Review [Collected papers 2: 87–92].
Asks whether bees or Lepidoptera visit flowers of Melastomataceae.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
Date: | 12 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3911 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 January [1863]
Summary
Acquired characteristics.
Huxley’s lectures: good on induction, bad on sterility, obscure on geology.
Asa Gray on slavery.
Falconer’s partial conversion.
Alphonse de Candolle on Origin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 179 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3913 |
To Smith, Elder & Company 14 January [1863]
Summary
Asks for account of sales of Geology of "Beagle". Willing to consider offer for remaining stock in order to close account.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Smith, Elder & Co |
Date: | 14 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | National Library of Scotland (MS.23181, ff.1-5 (S. E. & Co. work slip, ff.1-2, letter ff.3-4, address envelope f.5)) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3914 |
To Alphonse de Candolle 14 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks AdeC for his memoir ["Étude sur l’espèce", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 18 (1862): 59–110].
CD astonished at the amount of variability in the oaks.
CD differs from most contemporaries in thinking that the vast continental extensions of Forbes, Heer, and others are not only advanced without sufficient evidence but are opposed to much weighty evidence.
AdeC’s comment on CD’s work [Origin] is generous.
CD is satisfied at the length AdeC goes with him and is not surprised at his prudent reservations. He remembers how many years it took him to change his old beliefs. The great point is to give up immutability. So long as species are thought immutable there can be no progress in "epiontology" [see ML 1: 234 n.]. CD is sure to be proved wrong in many points but the subject will have "a grand future".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alphonse de Candolle |
Date: | 14 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Archives de la famille de Candolle (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3917 |
To Thomas Rivers 15 January [1863]
Summary
Particularly interested in TR’s information about peaches. Accepts offer of double-flowering peach-trees.
Will build a small hothouse for experiments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 15 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 83 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3918 |
To Thomas Rivers 17 [January 1863]
Summary
Can TR distinguish generally, always, or never, a nectarine-tree from a peach-tree before it flowers or before it fruits? He wants to quote TR’s answer.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | 17 [Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | John Wilson (dealer) (Catalogue 61, 21 July 1989, item 50) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3922 |
To Asa Gray 19 January [1863]
Summary
Comments on his own review of Bates’s butterfly paper [Collected papers 2: 87–92].
Thanks AG for information on Platanthera.
Has been wasting more time with Melastomataceae; can find no nectar in Monochaetum; is there any in Rhexia?
Hopes Lincoln’s "fiat against Slavery" will have some effect.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 19 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (57) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3927 |
To Hugh Falconer 20 [January 1863]
Summary
If jaw belongs to Archaeopteryx, it will show great peculiarity. A German author has advanced the case as argument for Origin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Hugh Falconer |
Date: | 20 [Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 144: 30 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3928 |
Rivers, Thomas | (5) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Bates, H. W. | (2) |
Candolle, Alphonse de | (2) |
Falconer, Hugh | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (35) |
Rivers, Thomas | (5) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Bates, H. W. | (2) |
Candolle, Alphonse de | (2) |