From Francis Galton 16 February 1876
42 Rutland Gate
Feb 16. 1876
My dear Darwin
Will the Enclosed be sufficient? if not pray tell me, & I can get you more in a few days. I too am experimenting in the same direction & shall be curious to know hereafter, how far my results may accord with yours.
I send a larger variety than you asked for, as I think the medium produce of medium peas will be found useful as a standard.1
What I send are.
(1) Big seeds,—the produce of big seeds (L)
(a) of L size
(b) of above L size.
(2) Little seeds,—the produce of big seed (L size)
(a) of P size
(b) of below P.
(3) Medium seeds (N)—the produce of medium seeds (N)
(4) Small seeds the produce of small (P) seeds
(a) very small size (much mishapen as nearly all of this lot are) much under Q size.
(b) small. (P size)
By “size” please understand “weight”
Pray excuse their being put up in rather clumsy packets—but I am obliged to go out early & wished to write before I went.
Ever sincerely yrs | Francis Galton
weight of | { | L—1.58 | grains2 | diff. 0.172 gr | |
1 pea of | N—1.23 | " | ←(M. 1.41) | ||
P—0.89 | " | ←(0. 1.0) | |||
Q—0.72 | " |
[Enclosure]
Large peas (L)
taken out of moderately sized pods (I have kept for planting all those from large pods)
the produce of large peas (L)
also a few peas larger than L out of same lot
These are heavier than L (nearly K)
Small peas P
the produce of large (L) peas
Also some still smaller from the same lot
Peas lighter than P (P-Q or Q) the produce of L
Medium peas (N) taken out of medium pods the produce of medium peas (N)
Very small seeds, the produce of small (P) seeds
also small P seeds of the same lot
Mem The produce of these generally appear misshapen. I can hardly pick out a single well shaped small pea out of the particular lot from which the enclosed were taken, whereas the produce of the large (L) seeds sown in the same garden are all shapely.
(P) size the produce of P plants
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Sends packets of seeds of peas of different sizes [i.e., weights] for CD’s experiments; identifies size of the seeds that produced them. FG is experimenting "in the same direction" and is curious how his results will compare with CD’s.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10395
- From
- Francis Galton
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Rutland Gate, 42
- Source of text
- DAR 76: B3–B11
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp, 4 encls
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10395,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10395.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24