To Athenæum 5 May [1863]
Summary
Replies to a reviewer’s statement, that any theory of descent will connect large classes of facts, by pointing out that no other explanation has been as satisfactory as natural selection. But whatever view is adopted "signifies extremely little in comparison with the admission that species have descended from other species and have not been created immutable".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Athenæum |
Date: | 5 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Athenæum, 9 May 1863, p. 617 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4142 |
To John Scott 2 May [1863]
Summary
Impressed by JS’s attempts to fertilise Gongora.
CD has large collection of notes on orchids, but does not know when he will publish on them again.
Asks for JS’s papers on sterility of individual orchids and on Drosera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 2 May [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B25–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4137 |
To W. E. Darwin [5 May 1863]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | [5 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 110 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4140 |
To Charles Lyell [7 May 1863]
Summary
Falconer’s letter [attacking CL, Athenæum 4 Apr 1863, pp. 459–60] is most unjust.
Regrets his letter [to Athenæum, on heterogeny] now criticised by Owen.
Comments on article by Samuel Haughton [On the form of cells made by wasps – with an appendix on the origin of species (1863)].
Mentions forthcoming reviews by Asa Gray [in Am. J. Sci.].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | [7 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 46 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4145 |
To George Snow 8 May 1863
Summary
Has pleasure in giving GS a testimonial for the office of surveyor for the Bromley District.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Snow |
Date: | 8 May 1863 |
Classmark: | Lawrences Auctioneers (dealers) (30 April – 2 May 2019, Lot 207) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4147F |
To J. D. Hooker [9 May 1863]
Summary
Lists the six honest believers in his species theory in England.
Asa Gray complains that Lyell acts like a judge on species, whereas CD complains of Lyell’s indecision.
CD working on divergence of leaves.
Distribution of Cameroon plants and the glacial theory.
Survival of island relics.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [9 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 192 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4148 |
To Thomas Rivers [9 May 1863]
Summary
Doubts the fruit will stick on his Chinese double peach and asks TR to send him a couple when ripe.
Would like to grow seeds of the "curious monstrosity" of a wall-flower, to see whether the monstrosity is hereditary.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Rivers |
Date: | [9 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 84 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4150 |
To W. E. Darwin [10 May 1863]
Summary
Thanks WED for his botanical specimens and observations.
Discusses Corydalis and the fertilisation of Fumariaceae.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | [10 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 111 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4151 |
To Asa Gray 11 May [1863]
Summary
CD despairs when men like AG and Lyell consider themselves incapable of judging on change of species by descent.
Is confused over phyllotaxy.
Has been looking at Plantago lanceolata.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 11 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (59) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4153 |
To Osbert Salvin 11 [May 1863]
Summary
At the suggestion of J. D. Hooker CD offers his opinion on the value of a proposed collection to be made at the Galápagos. The display would not be attractive or appealing to amateurs in natural history, but the scientific value of good collections of every species would be very great if those of each island are rigorously kept separate.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Osbert Salvin |
Date: | 11 [May 1863] |
Classmark: | Sybil Rampen (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4153A |
To George Maw 12 May [1863]
Summary
Believes GM’s human bones from Gibraltar must be of very doubtful age. Lyell agrees, but feels any skull found should be forwarded to George Busk or Hugh Falconer.
Suggests GM look carefully for shells in the drift.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Maw |
Date: | 12 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library (MAW/1/10) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4157 |
To W. H. Flower 12 May [1863]
Summary
Thanks WHF for photographs [of niata ox skull]. Will tell Quatrefages de Bréau about the cast. May have the photographs copied for woodcuts to illustrate his book on variation under domestication.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Henry Flower |
Date: | 12 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Bonhams (dealers) (13 March 2002) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4158 |
To Richard Kippist 13 May [1863 or 1868]
Summary
Asks to borrow J. J. Audubon [Ornithological biography (1831–9)].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Richard Kippist |
Date: | 13 May [1863 or 1868] |
Classmark: | Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University (Vault MSS 2, Box 12, Darwin) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4159 |
To H. B. Dobell 13 May [1863]
Summary
The [genealogical] table seems excellent. Would be obliged for any further information about the children of the cousins – the case surprises CD.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Horace Benge Dobell |
Date: | 13 May [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 221.5: 7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4162 |
To Edward Cresy 13 May [1863]
Summary
Thanks for maps.
George [Darwin] failed at St John’s [College, Cambridge] and will stay another year at school.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Cresy, Jr |
Date: | 13 May [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 323 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4164 |
To James Digues La Touche 14 May [1863?]
Summary
Thanks for drawing and note about peach–nectarine.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James Digues La Touche |
Date: | 14 May [1863?] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 34 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4166 |
To Armand de Quatrefages 14 May [1863]
Summary
Is sending photographs of the niata skull [requested in 4082]. W. H. Flower reports that he could have a cast made for £3.3s.0d.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
Date: | 14 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Sotheby’s, New York (dealers) (1997) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4166A |
To J. D. Hooker 15 and 22 May [1863]
Summary
The Lyell–Falconer squabble.
Discusses island vs continental floras and their degree of modification.
Critical of Wallace.
CD’s observations on phyllotaxy.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 15 and 22 May 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 193 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4167 |
To George Bentham 22 May [1863]
Summary
Natural selection implies that a form remains unaltered unless an alteration is to its benefit. This is not inconsistent with some forms remaining stable for long periods. Natural selection must at present be grounded entirely on general considerations. Of details we are still greatly ignorant.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | George Bentham |
Date: | 22 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Bentham Correspondence, Vol. 3, Daintree–Dyer, 1830–1884, GEB/1/3: f. 711–13) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4176 |
To Roland Trimen 23 May [1863]
Summary
CD has drawn up a paper from RT’s orchid notes on the fertilisation of Disa grandiflora for the Linnean Society [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 7 (1863): 144–7].
CD would welcome seeds of any Cape Oxalis for his investigation of dimorphism.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 23 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 56) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4179 |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Darwin, Emma | (1) |
Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (33) |
Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
Scott, John | (4) |
Darwin, W. E. | (3) |
Flower, W. H. | (2) |