To J. D. Hooker [26 February or 4 March 1860]1
[Down]
Sunday night.
My dear Hooker
I forgot in this morning’s note to say that I have tried in vain to get any Goodenia from large nursery here.— If you have any plant which you can perfectly spare & would send it as by enclosed address.— But it does not of course really at all signify; as it half mere amusement— —2
Do get some of your men (is Mr Oliver to whom you alluded one of them?)3 to cross with distinct individual 2 or 3 times in morning a bunch of flowers of some healthy Australian mimosa. perhaps also Eucalyptus I see in Lecoq’s work he speaks of sterility of the group under culture; it may possibly be from want of crossing; but not probably.4
Remind your man that the stigma may be ready after or before pollen of own flower is shed.—
Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lecoq, Henri. 1845. De la fécondation naturelle et artificielle des végétaux et de l’hybridation, considérée dans ses rapports avec l’horticulture, l’agriculture et la sylviculture … Contenant les moyens pratiques d’opérer l’hybridation et de créer facilement des variétés nouvelles. Paris: Audot.
Summary
Asks JDH for some Goodenia.
Suggests Daniel Oliver try to cross Mimosa, noted for sterility.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2716
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 44
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2716,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2716.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8