From Friedrich Hildebrand 21 June 1864
Bonn
June 21st 1864.
Dear and respected Sir,
I felt very much obliged to Mrs Darwin for her kindness to answer my letter instead of you, being not quite well at that time;1 I hope that your health is quite restored now, and I suppose that you are expecting me to send you the specimens of Orchis pyramidalis, as the time for Orchids has come back again.2 T[h]ough this is a very bad year for Orchids I found the mentioned species yesterday in the Seven Mountains3 and gladly sent you some specimens of it. I am sorry that I had not gone before to fetch them, because they are as yet very far advanced, but I hope you will find some of them being of use to you.4
You will have heard that our old friend Professor Treviranus died last month at the age of 85, followed by his wife after a fortnight.5 You used to send to Professor T. the papers you had published on botanical subjects, and he gave an account of them in the Botanische Zeitung,6 perhaps you will favour me with the same kindness for the same purpose.7
Your work on Orchids has induced me, as I told you as yet before, to researches in the same direction,8 now I have been looking for the agency of Insects in other plants, and I have come to some interesting results, especially in the Genus Salvia, but I have not come as yet to an end with my researches and hope to tell you more about them after some months.9
Perhaps you did not know that Pulmonaria officinalis has dimorphic flowers, exactly like some species of Primula; I have been experimentising on that plant this spring and have made out that it resembles the dimorphic species of Linum:10 I got only seeds when crossing the long styled form with the short styled, and the short styled with the long styled; there was no influence whatever of the pollen brought on the stigma of the same or another own form-flower.11
Once more I wish, that this letter may find you in good health and I remain | dear Sir | yours | very respectfully | Friedrich Hildebrand
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Correns, C. 1916. Friedrich Hildebrand. Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft 34 (pt 2): 28–49.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
‘Dimorphic condition in Primula’: On the two forms, or dimorphic condition, in the species of Primula, and on their remarkable sexual relations. By Charles Darwin. [Read 21 November 1861.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 6 (1862): 77–96. [Collected papers 2: 45–63.]
Junker, Thomas. 1989. Darwinismus und Botanik. Rezeption, Kritik und theoretische Alternativen im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Deutscher Apotheker Verlag.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Treviranus, Ludolph Christian. 1861. [Review of J. D. Hooker’s Flora Tasmaniæ.] Botanische Zeitung 19: 133–5, 142–4.
Treviranus, Ludolph Christian. 1866. Lebens-Abriss. Botanische Zeitung 24: 1–5.
‘Two forms in species of Linum’: On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation, in several species of the genus Linum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 5 February 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 69–83. [Collected papers 2: 93–105.]
Summary
Studying insect pollination in Salvia
and heterostyly in Pulmonaria officinalis which is similar to Linum case.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4542
- From
- Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Bonn
- Source of text
- DAR 166: 202
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4542,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4542.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12