From Friedrich Hildebrand 24 July 1866
Bonn
July 24th | 1866.
Dear and honoured Sir
I must excuse myself that I have not answered your former letter, but I was waiting for the copies of my paper on Oxalis to send you one of them;1 Prof. A. Braun intended to read it in the Berlin Academy but was prevented by a severe illness; after being recovered he has read it now, and I hope that I shall be able to send you a copy in the next time.2 I see from the proof-sheet that my expressions have not been quite clear, I hope that they will be so now. I thank you very much for your kind corrections of the mistakes I have made in your language.3
I must answer a passage in your first letter of March, because I see, that you have thought my experiments made only on one plant of Corydalis cava, “that might have been individually peculiar”.4 I see from an English flora that you have not this plant in England,5 it is quite different from the C. lutea where you have a lot of racemes on every plant, here you never have more than one; therefore the experiments made on different racemes are made on as many different plants.6
Further you say in your letter of March that you would be surprised if I did not come at last to the belief in ⟨2 or 3 words⟩ of individuals7—you ⟨2 or 3 words⟩ this short expression.— I ⟨2 or 3 words⟩ that from the first time I ⟨1 or 2 words⟩ your excellent “Origin of S⟨pecies”⟩ I have believed in it, and ⟨1 or 2 words⟩ strongly insist on this point ⟨1 or 2 words⟩ writing after some time—perhaps ⟨1 word⟩ on the different kinds of plants-⟨fer⟩tilisation.—8 A new proof of this law I lastly found in Aristolochia Clematitis that is weiblich-männlich dichogamisch.9 Sprengel has made here a mistake: the Insects find only the stigma developped in the young flower,— soon this stigma is covered and spoiled, then the anthers open themselves, and now the Insects can get out of the flower to bring the pollen to a younger one.10
⟨1 or 2 words⟩ ⟨revie⟩w of your paper on ⟨Lythrum salicaria w⟩as written by me,11 I hope ⟨2 or 3 words⟩ have been content with ⟨1 or 2 words⟩ ⟨pe⟩rhaps I shall get a copy ⟨1 or 2 words⟩ remarks on Corydalis—
⟨I⟩ am in a great hurry to ⟨post⟩ your letter, & therefore you ⟨must⟩ excuse me— Take my best ⟨than⟩ks for your two very kind ⟨le⟩tters and believe me dear Sir | yours | faithfully | Hildebrand
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bentham, George. 1865b. Handbook of the British flora; a description of the flowering plants and ferns indigenous to, or naturalized in, the British Isles. For the use of beginners and amateurs. 2 vols. London: Lovell Reeve & Co.
Lindley, John. 1859. A synopsis of the British flora arranged according to the natural orders. Containing vasculares or flowering plants. 3d edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts.
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.
Sprengel, Christian Konrad. 1793. Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen. Berlin: Friedrich Vieweg.
Summary
Assures CD of his belief in descent from his first reading of Origin.
Describes a case of dichogamy.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5166
- From
- Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Bonn
- Source of text
- DAR 166: 204; DAR 49: 150
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp damaged †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5166,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5166.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14
