Darwin, C. R. to Scott, John
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Answers JS's criticism of natural selection, which he doubts JS understands. CD does not believe in an "innate selective principle".
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To understand "utility" JS should read CD on correlation.
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Origin of maize: no longer thinks husked form was wild because of Asa Gray's evidence on its variability.
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Has information from Thomas Rivers on weeping habit in trees.
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JS's experiments on coloured primroses.
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Encloses bibliographical note on Passiflora.
Summary Add
Transcription
Down Bromley Kent
Mar 6. 1863
Dear Sir
I have been unwell for 12 days, & must write more briefly even than usual.— I used to think the husked Maize was wild & there is some evidence for S. America but I now hear from Asa Gray that it is very variable, I do not believe that it is the wild form. I do not know where seed could be got.
I enclose information about Passiflora. The experiment with
P. quandrangularis which fruits in some places & not in others, would
be specially good to try with other pollens. Thank you for the
attempt to give me information on weeping trees. I have got
much from M
I thank you for your criticisms on the Origin, which I have not time to discuss; but I cannot help doubting from your expression of an ``innate&lldots;.selective principle'' whether you fully comprehend what is meant by Natural Selection. Certainly when you speak of weaker (i.e less well adapted) forms crossing with the stronger, you take a widely different view from what I do on the struggle for existence; for such weaker forms could not exist except by the rarest chance.
With respect to utility reflect that
I am very far from strong & have great fear that I must stop all work for a couple of months for entire rest & leave home.— It will be ruin to all my work.—
Pray believe me | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
[Enclosure: 1]
Passiflora
Lecoq De la F´econdation p. 70. says that several kinds cannot be fertilised by own pollen; but can be fertilised by that of other species; names not given.—
(Transact. of Hort. Soc. of London
Vol. 7. p. 95 M
Bosse in German. Hort. Periodical (quoted by G¨artner Bastard s. 64) makes similar statements; & G. can confirm that P. racemosa can be more easily fertilised with pollen of P. cœrulea than with own;— &c &c—
I have received 3 other private accounts of analogous cases; but cannot spare time to hunt them up; nor do I know whether names of species were given.
I have found one case, viz that the Granadilla w
Lobelia
G¨artner (s. 357) twice found that L. fulgens, though
producing certainly good pollen, could not be fertilised by it, but
c
K¨olreuter (2
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- f1 4031.f1
Emma Darwin recorded in her diary (DAR 242) that after a fortnight of good health, CD became ill in the last week of February. She noted that he was: `faint in night', `languid & heavy' every morning, and `sick several times in course of week'. On 4 March she recorded: `Ch. better but occasional sickness'. - +
- f2 4031.f2
See letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863. Asa Gray gave this information in a missing postscript to his letter to CD of 10 November 1862 (Correspondence vol. 10). See Correspondence vol. 10, letter to Asa Gray, 26[--7] November [1862] and n. 3. - +
- f3 4031.f3
See enclosure. - +
- f4 4031.f4
See letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863. - +
- f5 4031.f5
See letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863 and nn. 6 and 7. - +
- f6 4031.f6
The reference is to the Sawbridgeworth nurseryman, Thomas Rivers. CD wrote drafts of the chapters on inheritance for Variation (Variation 2: 1--84) between 23 January and 1 April 1863 (see `Journal' (Correspondence vol. 11, Appendix II)). His account of the weeping habit of trees draws heavily on information provided by Rivers. See also letters to Thomas Rivers, [14 February 1863] and 5 March [1863]. - +
- f7 4031.f7
Scott was preparing a paper on the relationship between the form of reproduction and the heritability of variation in plants; however, the paper was never published (see letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863 and n. 13). Scott experimented extensively with species of Primula in 1863 and, at CD's prompting, wrote a paper on the subject (Scott 1864a; see letters from John Scott, 21 May [1863], [3 June 1863], and 23 July [1863]). - +
- f8 4031.f8
A. Gray 1862a. See letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863. - +
- f9 4031.f9
On Scott's success in pollinating the orchid Gongora atropurpurea, and on its implications for CD's account of Acropera in Orchids, pp. 203--10, see letters from John Scott, 6 January 1863 and 3 March 1863, and letter to John Scott, 16 February [1863]. - +
- f10 4031.f10
See letter from John Scott, 3 March 1863. - +
- f11 4031.f11
CD discussed what he called `Correlation of growth' in Origin, pp. 143--50, stating that he meant by the expression `that the whole organisation is so tied together during its growth and development, that when slight variations in any one part occur, and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts become modified' (p. 143). - +
- f12 4031.f12
One of the objects of Orchids was to show that there were many `contrivances by which Orchids are fertilised' (p. 1), the purposes of which naturalists had not previously known. - +
- f13 4031.f13
Lecoq 1845, p. 70. There are annotated copies of the first and second editions of Henri Lecoq's De la fecondation naturelle et artificielle des v´eg´etaux et de l'hybridation (Lecoq 1845 and 1862) in the Darwin Library--CUL (see Marginalia 1: 495--7). - +
- f14 4031.f14
William Mowbray's observations on Passiflora were communicated by letter to the secretary of the Horticultural Society of London in October 1824; the letter is summarised in the notices of communications to the society (Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London 7 (1830): 95--6). - +
- f15 4031.f15
Bosse 1829, p. 431, and G¨artner 1849, pp. 64--5. There is an annotated copy of G¨artner 1849 in the Darwin Library--CUL. - +
- f16 4031.f16
No letters on this subject have been found; however, see the account of cases of self-sterility in Passiflora given in Variation 2: 137--8. - +
- f17 4031.f17
George Thomas Staunton and Alexander Scott. CD's source for this information has not been identified. - +
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G¨artner 1849, p. 357. - +
- f19 4031.f19
K¨olreuter 1761--6, 2: 9--40, 3: 2--5. There is an annotated copy of this work in the Darwin Library--CUL (see Marginalia 1: 458--71). - +
- f20 4031.f20
Except for alterations, the letter is in Emma Darwin's hand up to `Your letter has interested me much—'; the remainder of the letter and the enclosure are in CD's hand.