From Charles Hardy1 23 July 1860
Hayling Vicarage | Havant
23 July 1860.
Sir,
I venture to mention to you in connexion with a remark made by you at p. 73 of your “Origin of Species” that “humble bees alone visit the red clover (Trifolium pratense) as other bees cannot reach the nectar”—that I was at Bury near Arundel last year in the months of July August & September. There was a field of red clover at the back of the house which was always frequented by myriads of bees.2 Speaking moderately I think a single dash of the net in any part of the field would have taken fifty of them. I called the attention of my children to the fact as contradicting what I told them was a popular error—which circumstance they perfectly recollect. I have repeatedly observed the same thing at other times & in other places.
I ought to say that the clover in question was a second growth (& I believe that it is from the second growth exclusively that the seed is saved) & that the flowers are somewhat smaller than those produced by a first growth. I have never particularly observed whether the latter are equally frequented by bees. If my life is spared for another year I will endeavour to ascertain that point.
I remain Sir | faithfully yours | Charles Hardy.
C. Darwin Esqre.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
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.
Summary
CD mistaken, in Origin, p. 73, in saying that only humble-bees visit red clover.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2877
- From
- Charles Hardy
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Havant
- Source of text
- DAR 76 (ser. 2): 170
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2877,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2877.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8