Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa
- +
Thanks AG for praise of Orchids and his notes on several American species of orchid. Comments on AG's observations.
- +
Is experimenting [on dimorphism] with Rhexia and Melastoma.
- +
Asks AG's opinion of a paper by Thomas Meehan ["On the uniformity of relative characters between allied species of European and American trees", Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. (1862): 10–13] which is the best case of the apparently direct action of the conditions of life CD has seen.
- +
Requests postage stamp for his ill son [Leonard].
- +
Thanks AG for observations on Cypripedium and gives recent observations of his own.
- +
Arethusa is very pretty; structure seems like that of Vanilla.
- +
Finds the little (so-called imperfect) flowers of Viola and Oxalis curious: the pollen-grains emit their tubes whilst within the anthers, and they travel in straight lines right to the stigmas.
- +
Sympathises with events in the U. S.
- +
Reports on French translation of Origin by Mlle C. Royer, "one of the cleverest & oddest women in Europe".
- +
Alphonse de Candolle says he wants direct proof of natural selection; "he will have to wait a long time for that".
Summary Add
Transcription
Down Bromley Kent
June 10
My dear Gray,
Your generous sympathy makes you overestimate what you have read of my orchid Book. But
your letter of May 18
I thank you most heartily for your notes on several American species. I am not
surprised as no true Orchis grows near you, that the pollinia of
O. spectabilis were not removed; I sh
I will write to Murray about casts of 3 first woodcuts; but I doubt whether he will send the casts, for I believe that there is to be set to be sent to Germany for German Edition.— I will do my best, but by Jove you shall not pay for them. If there be (which is very improbable) an American Edit, Murray will expect a little more than simple cost. But I will keep back this letter till I hear from him.
Enough & too much about my orchids, which are now again become beloved in my
eyes, & which were quite lately accursed. Many thanks about copies of your
Pamphlet. Do not trouble about Hollies; I thought they grew
near; the case is not important. Nothing will be made out, I
fear, about Rhexias, unless indeed a plant or plants could be protected from insects. I
have now a Rhexia glandulosa under trial, but there is little difference in stamens
& little to be made out. I am working at several
Melastomas; but am at fault; I am, however, certain there is something very
remarkable; the pollen of one set of anthers produce less seed & to my amazement
their seedlings are dwarfs compared to the other set, all produced from the same
plant.— The labour is great: I have lately
counted one by one 6700 seeds of Monochætum!
M
Since this was written the above little man has been struck down with scarlet-fever; but thank God this morning the case has taken a mild form.—
I have just received your long notes on Cypripedium; you may believe how profoundly interesting they are to me. Will you not publish them, either in noticing my Book in Silliman, or otherwise? But your notes are more interesting than you will suppose, for since publishing I saw at Flower show, C. hirsutissimum, but could not touch it, but it seemed to me that the sterile anther entirely covered the passages by the anthers. I was amazed & saw clearly that there must be some quite distinct manner of fertilisation. But I did not think of insects crawling into flower; still less of different kind of pollen & in somewhat concave & viscid stigma. By Jove it is wonderful. You have hit on the same very idea which latterly has overpowered me, viz the exuberance of contrivances for same object: you will find this point discussed & attempted to be partly explained in the last Chapter. No doubt my volume contains much error: how curiously difficult it is, to be accurate, though I try my utmost. Your notes have been interested me beyond measure. I can now afford to d—d. my critics with ineffable complacency of mind. Cordial thanks for this benefit.—
It is surprising to me that you sh
I am keeping back this letter till I hear from Murray, who, I fear is absent. I have
now received your interesting notes of June 2
Arethusa is very pretty: I sh
I received 2 or 3 days ago a French Translation of the Origin by a
Mad
Good Bye—till I hear from that wretch Murray.
(I have had another look at your Arethusa; structure seems very like Vanilla & unlike that of other orchids. In Vanilla, the Labellum is furnished with a compound curious comb, which would compel an insect in retreating to rub its back against rostellum; but the papillæ in Arethusa seem very different. How beautifully clear the spiral ducts are visible in wings of Clinandrium & colum.)
If you come across Specularia do look & tell me whether pollen-grains emit tubes direct from anthers or are grains collected on collecting hairs.—
I have just had letter from Alp. De Candolle about Primula & he gives me facts & his queries show he appreciates the case, & about nat. selection. He says he goes as far as you about change of species, & he laughs at Linnæus' old definition ``Species tot numerasmus quot &lldots; . . sunt creatæ''.— But I think from his letter you go further; he says he wants direct proof of nat. selection & he will have to wait a long time for that. Opticians do not wait for direct proof of undulation of ether. But Good Heavens what a higglety-pigglety letter I am scribbling to you, who have hardly a minute to spare.— It is a horrid shame, so I will stop.—
20
Yours cordially C. Darwin
- +
- f1 3595.f1
The year is established by reference to the publication of Orchids. - +
- f2 3595.f2
In the letter from Asa Gray, 18 May 1862, Gray gave his first reactions to the proof-sheets of part of Orchids sent to him by CD. The portion of this letter dated 26 May 1862 has not been found. - +
- f3 3595.f3
See letter from J. D. Hooker, [17 May 1862], and letter to J. D. Hooker, [18 May 1862]. See also letter from Daniel Oliver, 14 May 1862, and letter from George Bentham, 15 May 1862. - +
- f4 3595.f4
CD refers to Mormodes luxata; there are notes on a specimen sent to him by Sigismund Rucker on 8 June 1862 in DAR 70: 99--102. The only species of Mormodes described in Orchids is M. ignea (Orchids, pp. 249--65). CD concluded his notes on M. luxata indicating his uncertainty about the mechanism of ejection of the pollinia: `I do not clearly understand whole mechanism.— … If an insect entered & [del illeg] climbed up face of column till it touched the filament then disc would stick to abdomen & I could understand all, but I doubt.—' CD added a passage about M. luxata to the second edition of Orchids (Orchids 2d ed., pp. 219--20), and stated: `If an insect were to gnaw the terminal cup [of the labellum], it could hardly fail to touch the apex of the column, and then the pollinium would swing upwards and adhere to some part of the insect's body.' - +
- f5 3595.f5
The notes referred to have not been found, but see the letter from Asa Gray, 18 May 1862, in which Gray mentioned having transplanted some Orchis spectabilis from the state of New York. - +
- f6 3595.f6
The reference is to CD's publisher, John Murray. Gray planned to review Orchids in the American Journal of Science and Arts and wanted to use some of the original illustrations from the book (see letter from Asa Gray, 18 May 1862). Christian Friedrich Schweizerbart was planning to publish a German edition of Orchids and also wanted a set of electrotype plates of the illustrations (see letter from E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 7 June 1862). - +
- f7 3595.f7
See letters to John Murray, 13 June [1862] and 20 [June 1862]. - +
- f8 3595.f8
In his letter to CD of 18 May 1862, Gray mentioned that he had sent some copies of his pamphlet on Origin (A. Gray 1861) for CD `to give away'. - +
- f9 3595.f9
CD had sought information regarding `gradation in sexes' in American species of holly (see letter to Asa Gray, 21 April [1862]). Gray replied that the nearest hollies grew twenty miles away, but that he could `send' for some (see letter from Asa Gray, 18 May 1862). - +
- f10 3595.f10
Suspecting that Rhexia, a member of the Melastomataceae, might be dimorphic, CD had asked Gray to observe the position of the pistil and colour of the anthers in different Rhexia plants (see letter to Asa Gray, 16 February [1862]); if Gray found that there were not two forms, CD asked him to compare the position of the pistil in young and old flowers (see letter to Asa Gray, 15 March [1862]). Gray offered to `set to watching' R. virginica in the summer, but doubted whether the plant was dimorphic (see letter from Asa Gray, 6 March [1862]). See also letter to Asa Gray, 21 April [1862] and n. 13. CD had recently received a specimen of Rhexia glandulosa from Joseph Dalton Hooker, on which he had begun to experiment (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 May 1862], and the experimental notes, dated 1 June -- 2 July 1862, in DAR 205.8: 14--15). - +
- f11 3595.f11
CD had been experimenting since the end of 1861 on several members of the Melastomataceae that he believed might be dimorphic, namely Heterocentron, Monochaetum, and Centradenia. CD refers in particular to the results of his crossing experiment with H. roseum (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1862] and 30 May [1862]). - +
- f12 3595.f12
CD's notes on the crossing experiments with Monochaetum ensiferum that he began in February and harvested in April and May 1862 are in DAR 205.8: 22--33, 37, and 39. They include tabulations of the numbers of seeds produced following crosses using pollen from the two different kinds of anther (DAR 205.8: 30, 31). - +
- f13 3595.f13
Meehan 1862; there is an annotated copy of the paper in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection--CUL. Thomas Meehan, having noticed that (Meehan 1862, pp. 10--11):European willows, oaks and other trees retained their green leaves in the autumn much longer than closely allied American species growing near them, and that this could not be owing to immediate climatic influences, … was led to believe it was rather the result of inherent specific peculiarities, which further investigation tended to confirm. CD discussed Meehan's results in Variation 2: 281--2, in a chapter entitled: `Direct and definite action of the external conditions of life'. See also Baker 1965. - +
- f14 3595.f14
CD refers to his twelve-year-old son Leonard Darwin. Wells, Fargo & Co. was an American stage-coach company set up by Henry Wells and William George Fargo. In 1861, the company became the San Francisco agents for the Pony Express mail service and issued stamps inscribed `Pony Express'. Daniel O. Blood & Co. was a mail company based in Philadelphia. (Sutton 1966, pp. 41, 237, 332.) - +
- f15 3595.f15
According to Emma Darwin's diary (DAR 242), Leonard Darwin `came home with sc. fever' on 12 June 1862. - +
- f16 3595.f16
The notes referred to have not been found; CD asked Gray to observe and experiment on Cypripedium the previous year (see Correspondence vol. 9, letters to Asa Gray, 12 March [1861] and 5 June [1861]). In Orchids, pp. 274--5, CD had suggested that Cypripedium must be pollinated by an insect inserting its proboscis into one of the two lateral entrances at the base of the labellum, directly over one of the two lateral anthers, and thus either placing the pollen onto the flower's own stigma, or carrying it away to another flower. In `Fertilization of orchids', pp. 155--6 (Collected papers 2: 152), CD stated:Prof. Asa Gray, after examining several American species of Cypripedium, wrote to me … that he was convinced that I was in error, and that the flowers are fertilized by small insects entering the labellum through the large opening on the upper surface, and crawling out by one of hte two small orifices close to either anther and the stigma. Gray included his observations on American species of Cypripedium in a follow-up article to his review of Orchids for the American Journal of Science and Arts (also known as `Silliman's journal'). See A. Gray 1862b, pp. 427--8. - +
- f17 3595.f17
There is an undated note in DAR 70: 119--20, which states:I must correct my saying that insects could reach end of Labellum with greatest ease by open end of the toe of slipper— Cypripedium hirsutissimum seen very [aberrant] with rudimentary anther joined to soldered edge of labellum.— CD refers to his statement in Orchids, p. 274 that `An insect could reach the extremity of the labellum, or the toe of the slipper, through the longitudinal dorsal slit'. CD extensively revised his discussion of Cypripedium in the second edition of Orchids. See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 4 November [1862] and n. 10. - +
- f18 3595.f18
Orchids, pp. 346--51. In the table of contents CD headed this section: `Cause of the vast diversity of structure for the same general purpose'. - +
- f19 3595.f19
See nn. 6 and 7, above. - +
- f20 3595.f20
See letter from Asa Gray, [2 June 1862]. - +
- f21 3595.f21
Gray enclosed some flower-buds of the orchid Arethusa with his letter of [2 June 1862]. CD described the manner of pollination of Cattleya in Orchids, pp. 160--4. Hooker had sent CD some specimens of Vanilla at the end of May (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [29 May 1862] and n. 2). - +
- f22 3595.f22
See n. 16, above. - +
- f23 3595.f23
See letter from Asa Gray, [2 June 1862] and n. 2. - +
- f24 3595.f24
There is a note dated 16 June 1862, recording CD's observations on the `little imperfect flower' of Oxalis acetosella in DAR 111: 44. For CD's observations on Viola, see the letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 May [1862] and n. 7. - +
- f25 3595.f25
Royer trans. 1862. The first edition of Clémence Auguste Royer's French translation of Origin was published on 31 May 1862 (Journal Générale de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie 2d ser. 6 (pt 3): 341). CD's copy of the work has not been found; however, there is a lightly annotated copy of Royer's preface to her translation in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection--CUL. - +
- f26 3595.f26
Gray had told CD that the occurrence in Specularia perfoliata of small unopening flowers in which self-fertilisation occurred (a phenomenon later called cleistogamy) had `long been known' (see Correspondence vol. 9, letter from Asa Gray, 11 October 1861). CD had recently been investigating this phenomenon in Viola and Oxalis (see n. 24, above). - +
- f27 3595.f27
See letter from Alphonse de Candolle, 13 June 1862. - +
- f28 3595.f28
The reference is to Linnaeus 1751, aphorism 157: `We count as many species as there were forms created in the beginning' (Stafleu 1971, p. 63). - +
- f29 3595.f29
Murray's letter has not been found, but see the letter to John Murray, 20 [June 1862].