From [J. B. Innes] [after 8 February – August 1855]
Summary
Provides another case of apparently pure bred pointers producing litter with one setter puppy. Correspondent was told that this occurred in several litters; gives names of owners and others who can corroborate the information.
Author: | John Brodie Innes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [after 8 Feb – Aug 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 163: 5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13870 |
From J. D. Dana [before 6 December 1855]
Summary
Responds to CD’s criticism of his use of word "Kingdom" in discussing geographical distribution of Crustacea.
Author: | James Dwight Dana |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 6 Dec 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR (CD library – Dana, J. D. 1853) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1544 |
From Bartholomew James Sulivan 2 February [1855]
Summary
The only mainland vegetation he saw on Falkland Island shores were trees. Remembers no strange birds there, but on journey home saw a woodcock more than 500 miles from the nearest land.
Author: | Bartholomew James Sulivan |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Feb [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 251 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1551 |
From Charles Cardale Babington [c. June 1855]
Summary
Reports that he sees the oxlip, cowslip, and primrose as really distinct species; hybrids are formed between any two.
Author: | Charles Cardale Babington |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. June 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1584 |
From Arthur Edward Knox [c. March 1855–7?]
Summary
CD has suggested an explanation of how pike were introduced to a remote lake in Ireland by cormorants [carrying pike spawn on their feet or in their gullets].
Author: | Arthur Edward Knox |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | Mar 1855-7 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 243 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1624 |
From G. R. Waterhouse [after 2 March 1855]
Summary
Gives instances of sexual differences in the number of tarsi within species of Coleoptera and also variation in the number of tarsi between related species.
Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [after 2 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 47: 133–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1625 |
From John Davy 30 January 1855
Summary
Responds to CD’s letter. The ova of Salmonidae exposed to air, if kept moist, will stay alive up to 72 hours.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Jan 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 227 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1634 |
From John Rae 21 February 1855
Author: | John Rae |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Feb 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 249 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1636 |
From J. D. Hooker [before 7 March 1855]
Summary
CD’s tabulation of colonists curious but explicable.
Working on Tasmanian flora; contemplating general essay on Australian distribution: Tasmania and Australia same alpine species; Swan River flora very peculiar and quite distinct from New South Wales.
Trying to establish new journal at Linnean.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 7 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 216–17 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1638 |
From Thomas Vernon Wollaston 2 March [1855]
Summary
Hybrid insects.
Description of the Salvages.
Variability of "transition groups" of insects; relation of variability to ranges of insects. The variability of wings, even within species. Reduction of flying ability on isolated islands.
Forbes’s "Atlantis" theory and insect fauna of the Atlantic islands, considered with regard to insect migrations.
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Mar [1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 136 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1640 |
From G. R. Waterhouse [7 March 1855]
Summary
Comparison of skulls of Ichthyosaurus and Cetacea.
Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [7 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 20 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1642 |
From J. D. Hooker [before 17 March 1855]
Summary
JDH criticises C. J. F. Bunbury’s paper on Madeira [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 1 (1857): 1–35].
Absence of Ophrys on Madeira suggests to JDH a sequence in creation of groups.
Why are flightless insects common in desert?
Australian endemism.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 17 Mar 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 210–13 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1644 |
From John Davy 21 March 1855
Summary
On the ova of the salmon in relation to the distribution of species.
Author: | John Davy |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Mar 1855 |
Classmark: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 146 (1856): 21–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1651A |
DCP-LETT-1652
Summary
Cancelled: same as 1672.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 474 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1652 |
From C. J. F. Bunbury 10 April 1855
Summary
Responds to CD’s questions about mountain vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope. The distribution of some plants provides problems for both migration and special creation hypotheses.
Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.4: 95 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1664 |
From Edward Blyth 21 April 1855
Summary
Indigenous domestic animals of the New World.
Relationship of Newfoundland and Esquimo dogs to the wolf. Dogs like the Esquimo occur in Tibet and Siberia. Indian pariah dogs and jackals occasionally interbreed.
Describes domestic cats of India; reports cases of their interbreeding with wild cats. Wild cats are tamed for hunting.
Races of silkworm in India are crossed [see 1690].
Domesticated plants, fish, and birds of India.
Comments on local races and species of crows; it is impossible to trace a line of demarcation between races and species.
Variation in the ability of hybrids to propagate.
Indian cattle breeds; differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus.
Is not satisfied that aboriginally wild species of horse and ass exist.
Believes all fancy breeds of pigeon originated in the East. Wild ancestors of pigeons, ducks, geese, and fowls. Interbreeding of wild species of pheasant.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A57–A68 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1670 |
From Charles Lyell 23 April 1855
Summary
CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Apr 1855 |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 6: 7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1672 |
From Asa Gray 22 May 1855
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 May 1855 |
Classmark: | DAR 106: D1–D2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1685 |
From J. D. Hooker [6–9 June 1855]
Summary
Finds Forbes’s continental theories, migration, and double creation are all unsatisfactory explanations of geographical distribution of plants.
Is currently working on problems of sea transport of plant species.
European plants on Australian Alps only explicable by double creations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [6–9 June 1855] |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 90–3 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1694 |
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 |
letter | (49) |
Darwin, C. R. | (49) |
Blyth, Edward | (12) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Davy, John | (2) |