To Thomas Rivers 17 August [1863]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Aug 17th
My dear Sir
The almond tree which you gave me has produced no fruit; but the Double Chinese Peach has 3 fruit.2 Now, if you have any bearing Almond trees, would you have kindness, when fruit ripe to send me 2 or 3; & if you have any other odd peach 2 or 3 to compare the stones.—3 The best address is
“C. Darwin”
“care of Down Postman”
per Rail “Bromley”
“Kent”
I presume you have no more facts for me to quote on inheritance of weeping trees; you said, if you had time, you could prove the weeping elm.—4
Now I am going to beg another favour. Have you yourself seen any kind of modification in fruit or foliage any fruit-tree from being grafted. Andrew Knight & others assert that slight differences do result;5 others positively deny this. Can you give me any certain facts?6
Lastly I ask on mere improbable chance of the point having occurred to you: viz do you believe & can you any how account for the positive statements of several good pears (& several varieties of wheat) having been discovered as seedlings in hedges & woods. On mere doctrine of chances, this might perhaps have occasionally occurred; but the occurrence seems too frequent for mere chance. I have not yet collected such recorded cases, as I have met with, but I know that I have several. & in a day or two shall collect them.7
Pray excuse me thus troubling you, & believe me, My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Knight, Thomas Andrew. 1815. On the want of permanence of character in varieties of fruit, when propagated by grafts and buds. [Read 4 April 1815.] Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London 2 (1817): 160–1.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
The almond-tree TR gave him produced no fruit, but the Chinese double peach has three. Asks for ripe almond fruits and any odd peaches, to compare the stones.
Asks about modification in fruit or foliage in any fruit-trees from being grafted,
and about seedlings of pears and wheat said to have been found in hedges and woods.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4270
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Rivers
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 85
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4270,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4270.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11