From Andrew Smith [November? 1862]
Summary
AS has been seriously ill with rheumatic fever.
Is studying the natives of South Africa to see whether he can trace any connection between them and the populations of North Africa.
Author: | Andrew Smith |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [Nov? 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 184 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3362 |
From W. E. Darwin [2 November 1862]
Summary
Counted seeds by tens. Sends some.
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [2 Nov 1862] |
Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 10) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3362F |
From J. D. Hooker 2 November 1862
Summary
Stupefied by CD’s five forms of Lythrum.
Asa Gray busy with Cypripedium. JDH offers some to CD if he wants to challenge Gray.
J. W. Dawson’s review of JDH’s paper on Arctic plants.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte’s views on Basque and Finnish language [Langue basque et langues finnoises (1862)] suggest to JDH that Basques are Finns left behind after the glacial period, like the Arctic plants!
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 66–7, 70 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3792 |
From J. B. Jukes 3 November 1862
Summary
The statement on p. 87 of Origin that birds break the eggs with their own beaks should be revised.
Author: | Joseph Beete Jukes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 168: 92 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3794 |
From J. D. Hooker 7 November 1862
Summary
JDH admits he wrote Gardeners’ Chronicle and Natural History Review articles on orchids [Gard. Chron. (1862): 789–90, 863, 910; Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 371–6].
JDH’s objections to CD’s idea of how Greenland was repopulated. Temperate Greenland has as Arctic a flora as Arctic Greenland – a fact of astounding force. Why should certain Scandinavian species be absent? Migration by sea-currents can no more account for the present distribution in Greenland than can special creation.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 68–9, 73–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3797 |
From Asa Gray 10 November 1862
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 122 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3799 |
From John Scott 11 November 1862
Summary
CD is mistaken in considering Acropera unisexual, with only male flowers [Orchids, pp. 203–10]. JS has successfully fertilised two A. loddigesii flowers. One is ripening. Dissection of the other shows the pollen accomplishes fertilisation without contacting any stigmatic surface. Abortive ovules found in flowers that did not become fertilised when pollinated. JS suggests Acropera has both unisexual male and hermaphrodite flowers.
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 11 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 77 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3800 |
From J. D. Hooker 12 November 1862
Summary
Samuel Haughton was the prejudiced reviewer of the Origin. JDH’s opinion of SH.
Has heard from a W. African collector that P. B. Du Chaillu’s accounts [Explorations and adventures in equatorial Africa (1861)] are all false.
R. F. Burton has impudently stolen credit for Gustav Mann’s Cameroon expedition.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 75–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3802 |
From Robert Swinhoe 12 November 1862
Summary
Sends CD a specimen of the domestic pigeon of China.
Discusses a race of ducks he believes are hybrids between the Muscovy and Chinese domestic duck.
Author: | Robert Swinhoe |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 326 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3803 |
From Hugh Falconer 12 November [1862]
Summary
Sends paper on affinities of Plagiaulax ["On Plagiaulax from the Purbeck beds", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): 348–69].
Author: | Hugh Falconer |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 164: 9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3804 |
From J. D. Hooker [15 and] 20 November [1862]
Summary
Sends CD West Ireland soundings.
More detail on his review "a la Lindley" [see 3797].
Bates’s paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 495–566] is capital.
Andrew Murray’s article plays into CD’s hands through sheer ignorance.
JDH is on Royal Society Council.
Has no recollection of applying natural selection to Polynesians. None but a German would dig out such a passage if it exists [see 3812].
Has caused Tyndall to modify his pseudo-geology.
Has not seen Duke of Argyll’s review [Edinburgh Rev. 116 (1862): 378–97]. [The Duke] did not understand Orchids the least little bit, nor the Origin, when JDH saw him.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 and 20 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 71–2, 79 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3807 |
From John Scott 15 November [1862]
Summary
Appreciates CD’s acknowledging his letter and his comments on Acropera. Will send CD the Acropera capsule which is now maturing.
Experimenting on vegetable parthenogenesis.
Structure of Acropera.
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 15 Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 78 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3808 |
From Asa Gray 17 November 1862
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 123 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3811 |
From Adam Fitch 18 November 1862
Summary
In reply to CD’s letter, "Peas" in Gardeners’ Chronicle [8 Nov 1862; Collected papers 2: 70] sends information on the duration of some of A. Knight’s crossed varieties.
Author: | Adam Fitch |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 77: 166–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3813 |
From John Scott [20 November – 2 December 1862]
Summary
JS does not fully accept natural selection.
Has never raised oxlips from cowslips or primroses; reports of such must be cases of crossing.
Discusses relative fertility of varieties, self-fertility of hybrids, and plans for experiments on enhanced hybrid fertility.
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [20 Nov – 2 Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 79 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3815 |
From Edward Blyth 23 November 1862
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 160.2: 204, DAR 205.2: 216 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3821 |
From Asa Gray 24 November 1862
Summary
Gives reference to his observations on tendrils [Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4: 98–9].
Notes cases in which the pollen of the fertilising plant affects the form of the fruit of the fertilised plant, e.g., gourds and maize.
Discusses the Civil War and the attitudes of the English press.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 124 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3823 |
From C. W. Crocker 24 November 1862
Summary
Answers on Begonia.
Snapdragon crossing experiments.
Thanks for offer of plants.
Author: | Charles William Crocker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 259 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3824 |
From H. W. Bates 24 November 1862
Summary
Gratified by CD’s approval of paper which was also praised by Hooker and Wallace. Only cares for one other opinion, that of C. Felder of Vienna. He finds ordinary entomologists are not scientific men. Asks for more criticisms; desires to publish paper in a widely circulating journal to advertise his book.
Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 160.1: 72 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3825 |
From Daniel Oliver 25 November 1862
Summary
Informs CD of possible dimorphism of Epilobium angustifolium.
Author: | Daniel Oliver |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 111 (ser. 2): 61–2 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3828 |
letter | (25) |
Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
Gray, Asa | (3) |
Scott, John | (3) |
Clarke, R. T. | (2) |