From Richard Thomas Lowe 12 April 1856
Summary
Discusses the flora of Porto Santo in relation to that of Madeira. While these islands have some 20 endemic species in common, there are 7 or 8 species endemic to Porto Santo alone, and 25 common to Porto Santo and Europe that are not found on Madeira. Believes the great difference in soil and climate is enough to explain this: plants common on one island cannot be made to grow on the other. Believes J. D. Hooker has underestimated the number of species endemic to Madeira. There are some remarkable endemic species of common plants in the Dezertas.
The eel is the only freshwater fish on Porto Santo and Madeira.
Author: | Richard Thomas Lowe |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Apr 1856 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection, Journal I: 132–6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1852A |
From C. J. F. Bunbury 16 April 1856
Summary
Is interested by what CD tells him about his researches and speculations on species, variation, and distribution. Hopes he will not give up the idea of publishing his views. Advises CD on need for caution and candour. Raises some difficulties with "specific centre" theory of distribution.
Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 Apr 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 218 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1854 |
From Charles Lyell 1–2 May 1856
Summary
Urges CD to publish his theory with small part of data.
Corrects names of land shells on list of shells picked up at Down.
Discusses transport of Ancylus from one river-bed to another by water-beetle.
"I hear that when you & Hooker & Huxley & Wollaston got together you made light of all Species & grew more & more unorthodox."
Mentions discussion of old Atlantis by Oswald Heer.
Comments on Helix and Nanina.
Mentions beetle discovered with small bag of eggs of water-spider under wing.
Madeira evidence favours single species birth-place theory.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1–2 May 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 282 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1862 |
From S. P. Woodward 2 May 1856
Summary
Proportion of molluscan species to genera in various periods. The difficulty of determining species increases with the number of species per genus. Identifying species within a genus is most difficult in that period in which the genus shows its greatest development.
Author: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 May 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 153 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1864 |
From Laurence Edmondston [before 3 May 1856]
Summary
The vaunted fidelity of the ark bird has its exceptions.
Gives some details on wild pigeons.
Answers in the affirmative CD’s query about drifted trees.
Author: | Laurence Edmondston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [before 3 May 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 229 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1865 |
From J. D. Hooker 7 May 1856
Summary
Non-endemic Ascension Island plants brought by man, not wind-transported.
Bentham has found intermediates between oxlip and cowslip in Herefordshire.
JDH finds quantity of albumen in seeds is not variable within a species.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 May 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 94–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1869 |
From Edward William Vernon Harcourt 31 May 1856
Summary
Extensive notes on Madeiran birds: when and where seen on the island and under what conditions.
Author: | Edward William Vernon Harcourt |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 May 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 100 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1883 |
From S. P. Woodward 4 June 1856
Summary
SPW and Waterhouse agree on island faunas; gives Australia and Tasmania as examples. The "stream of migration" from Asia to Tasmania.
Looks forward eagerly to the publication of CD’s "specific" researches.
Invites CD to send his memoranda [on Manual of Mollusca].
Author: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 June 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 303 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1889 |
From H. C. Watson 5 June 1856
Summary
Answers CD’s questions about plants common to U. S. and Britain and their distribution in Europe.
Variability of agrarian weeds.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 June 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 32 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1891 |
From E. L. Layard [September–October 1856]
Author: | Edgar Leopold Layard |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [Sept–Oct 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 83: 185–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1897 |
From H. C. Watson 10 June 1856
Summary
Evidence relevant to E. Forbes’s land-bridge theory.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 June 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 33 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1898 |
From Charles Lyell 17 June 1856
Summary
CD forgets an author [CD himself in Coral reefs] "who, by means of atolls, contrived to submerge archipelagoes (or continents?), the mountains of which must originally have differed from each other in height 8,000 (or 10,000?) feet".
CL begins to think that all continents and oceans are chiefly post-Eocene, but he admits that it is questionable how far one is at liberty to call up continents "to convey a Helix from the United States to Europe in Miocene or Pliocene periods".
Will CD explain why the land and marine shells of Porto Santo and Madeira differ while the plants so nearly agree?
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 June 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 475 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1905 |
From H. C. Watson 20 June 1856
Summary
Conveys [? J. T. I. Boswell-]Syme’s opinion of variability of agrarian weeds and ranges of species common to U. S. and W. Europe. The Hispano-Hibernian connection.
Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 June 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 34 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1907 |
From J. D. Hooker [26 June or 3 July 1856]
Summary
Can no longer make out story of NW. American plants; consulting Asa Gray.
Questionable validity of seed-salting experiments.
Aristolochia and Viscum seem to shed pollen before flower opens.
Ray Society should only do translations.
Thomas Thomson in India has rediscovered Aldrovanda, a rare relative of Drosera.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [26 June or 3 July] 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 197 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1911 |
From T. V. Wollaston [27 June 1856]
Summary
Madeiran insects. Regards the "Atlantic province" as a centre of the Coleoptera.
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [27 June 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 137 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1912 |
From T. V. Wollaston [c. 27 June 1856]
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 27 June 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 300 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1912A |
From Charles Lyell [1 July 1856]
Summary
To cast doubt on CD’s view that volcanic action is associated with elevation of land, CL suggests that local oscillations in strata underlying volcanoes could also explain how active volcanoes have uplifted fossil deposits of marine shells. Overall he is more inclined to believe that recent volcanoes belong to areas of subsidence rather than of elevation.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1 July 1856] |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/2: 132–6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1915A |
From John Henry Gurney 2 July 1856
Summary
Hybrids of Phasianus versicolor breed freely between themselves as well as with common pheasants. Has been assured that hybrids between mallards and pintails are sometimes fertile inter se.
Author: | John Henry Gurney |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 July 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 259 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1916 |
From J. D. Hooker 10 July 1856
Summary
[T. Bell Salter’s?] "hybrid" Epilobium a false claim.
Admires Huxley’s response to Falconer [see 1904].
Tristan da Cunha plant list, requested by CD, supports JDH’s position [on continental extension?].
Chilean plants not exceptional.
JDH considers parallels between Australian Alps and European plants strong evidence for multiple creations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 July 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 96–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1923 |
From S. P. Woodward 15 July 1856
Summary
Has reduced 20 Cyrena species to geographical varieties of one species, Cyrena fluminalis. Hooker is reducing Indian flora at the rate of 19 to 1.
Recommends W. H. Harvey’s Seaside book [1849] and Charles Pickering’s Races of man [1850].
Author: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 July 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 304 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1927 |
letter | (69) |
Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Blyth, Edward | (6) |
Wollaston, T. V. | (5) |
Woodward, S. P. | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (69) |
Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
Watson, H. C. | (7) |
Blyth, Edward | (6) |
Wollaston, T. V. | (5) |