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From M. T. Masters   20 April 1866

International Horticultural Exhibition, | & Botanical Congress, | Office, 1, William Street, Lowndes Square, S.W.

April 20 1866

My dear Sir/

I hope you will not attribute the fact of my not having sent you Caspary’s paper (read at Amsterdam) to my negligence—1 the truth is it is not yet published but I believe it soon will be when I will forward it to you as soon as I shall have looked it through in in the interests of the Gard. Chron.2 in the meantime it may interest you to know that Caspary intends to read an elaborate paper at our congress on the motion observed in the branches of trees as the result of cold—3 His paper is minute in detail and accompanied with diagrams &c

The principal conclusions at wh. he arrives are

1. That there is in frosty weather a lateral movement (to the left hand) of the branches & in direct proportion to the intensity of the cold.

2. There is also a vertical movement from above downwards

3. Sometimes a similar movement in the reverse direction i.e. upwards

4 In other cases the branches rise in mild weather & droop in frost—

Another Paper which concerns you is one of Lecoq’s on the migration of plants wh special reference to the mountain flora of Auvergne nearly identical with those of the Alps & Pyrenees—4 He disagrees with you as to the glacial epoch and its effect in producing the present distribution of plants   He says the former greater extension of glaciers was rather due to a higher than to a lower temperature and says he has anticipated Frankland & Tyndall in this point   see his book Des glaciers et des Climats”—5 He considers that birds and the winds have effected the colonization of Alpine & Articc plants in the Auvergne mountains6—but while disagreeing with you on most points he shares your views as to Origin of Species and has anticipated you— see his Etudes sur la geographie botanique de l’Europe tom i. p. 140. tom iv. p 245–277.7

—The other papers that I have got (more than we quite know what to do with!) are mostly technical either horticultural or botanical   should anything turn up that I think will be likely to interest you I will let you know before hand.8 De C’s address is chiefly on the relations of Vegl. Physiol. to Horticult. & of the services wh. Horticulturists (not devoted to £.s.d only) might render to Veg. Phys & Bot.9

If all this is caviare pray excuse me and believe me though hastily yet with great respect | yours faithfully | Maxwell. T. Masters

Footnotes

1
The reference is to Robert Caspary’s paper on graft hybrids (Caspary 1865a). See letter to Robert Caspary, 21 February [1866] and n. 2. CD had received a copy of the paper (see letter to Robert Caspary, 4 March 1866).
2
Masters had become the principal editor of Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1865, upon the death of John Lindley (DNB).
3
Caspary’s paper ‘On the change of the direction of the branches of woody plants’ was read at the International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress on 23 May 1866. The paper was published in the congress proceedings (Caspary 1866a). An abstract was printed in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 2 June 1866, pp. 513–14.
4
Henri Lecoq’s paper on the migration of alpine plants was delivered at the International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress and published in the congress proceedings (Lecoq 1866).
5
Lecoq disputed CD’s argument in Origin, pp. 365–82, that Alpine species had migrated during a cold period to lowlands formerly occupied by temperate species and that with a return of warmer temperatures after the glacial epoch, some of these Alpine species had ascended mountains while others retreated to Arctic regions. Lecoq claimed that glaciers in Europe had been caused not by a general lowering of temperature, but by a condensation of vapour in higher altitudes during a comparatively warm period (see Lecoq 1866, pp. 162–3). Lecoq referred to his work, Des glaciers et des climats (Lecoq 1847), as containing the first exposition of theories on glacial formation that were later proposed by Edward Frankland and John Tyndall. In several papers published in 1864, Frankland argued that the glacial epoch was caused by increased precipitation owing to a warming of the oceans (see Frankland 1864a and 1864b, and Correspondence vol. 12). In support of his theory, Frankland cited Tyndall’s research on the formation of glaciers by a process of freezing and melting, implying a fluctuation of temperatures rather than an absolute reduction in temperature (Frankland 1864a, pp. 168–9; see also Tyndall and Huxley 1857, Tyndall 1860, and Correspondence vol. 6). Tyndall’s glacial research is discussed in Rowlinson 1971 and Hevley 1996.
6
See Lecoq 1866, pp. 163–4.
7
The reference is to Lecoq 1854–8. There is an annotated copy in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 488–96). Before he read Lecoq 1854–8, CD added a note to his historical sketch in the American edition of Origin, stating his belief that Lecoq’s views on modification and descent were similar to those of Naudin (Correspondence vol. 8, Appendix IV, p. 575). After reading it, he replaced the note with a quotation from Lecoq 1854–8, 1: 250, which suggested that Lecoq’s views agreed with those of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. CD added the remark, ‘Some other passages scattered through M. Lecoq’s large work, make it a little doubtful how far he extends his views on the modification of species’. See Origin 4th ed., p. xx, and Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 68–9. For CD’s negative assessment of the work, see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 December 1861].
8
For a list of the papers presented at the congress, see International Horticultural Exhibition 1866.
9
Alphonse de Candolle gave the presidential address at the opening meeting of the International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress on 23 May 1866 (Candolle 1866).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.

International Horticultural Exhibition 1866: International Horticultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress, held in London, from May 22nd to May 31st, 1866. Report of Proceedings. London: Truscott, Son, & Simmons.

Lecoq, Henri. 1847. Des glaciers et des climats, ou des causes atmosphériques en géologie. Paris: P. Bertrand.

Lecoq, Henri. 1854–8. Études sur la géographie botanique de l’Europe et en particulier sur la végétation du plateau central de la France. 9 vols. Paris: J. B. Baillière.

Lecoq, Henri. 1866. De la migration des plantes des montagnes. International Horticultural Exhibition 1866, pp. 158–65.

Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.

Origin 4th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 4th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1866.

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.

Rowlinson, J. S. 1971. The theory of glaciers. Notes and records of the Royal Society of London 26: 189–204.

Tyndall, John. 1860. The glaciers of the Alps. Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, an account of the origin and phenomena of glaciers, and an exposition of the physical principles to which they are related. London: J. Murray.

Summary

Expects R. Caspary’s paper to be published soon.

Reports the conclusions of another of RC’s papers on the movement of tree branches due to cold [Bull. Congr. Int. Bot. & Hortic. Lond. (1866): 98–117]

and discusses a paper by H. Lecoq on the mountain flora of the Auvergne [Proc. Bot. Congr. (1866): 158–65]. He disagrees with CD on glaciation and its effect on geographical distribution.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-5062
From
Maxwell Tylden Masters
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Int. Hortic. Exhib.
Source of text
DAR 171: 75
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5062,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5062.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14

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