To J. D. Hooker 30 July [1866]
Summary
His reasons for rejecting Atlantis hypothesis connecting Madeira and Canary Islands.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 30 July [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 294, 294b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5167 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … freshwater basin than in the sea ( Origin , p. 107). CD refers to Pierre-Edmond Boissier and to Boissier 1839–45 . Boissier 1839–45 includes lists of mountain plants …
From V. O. Kovalevsky 20 January 1874
Summary
Russian Expression has sold nearly 2000 copies.
Plans to come to England to study collections of vertebrate fossils from the Chalk. This will complement his work in the south of France.
| Author: | Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский) |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Jan 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 169: 95 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9251 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … freshwater chalk consist of the Strata which Lyell and Murchison have mentioned near Aix, deeming them tertiary, while now they are found covered by a band of Hippurite Limestone on their cretaceous age is undoubtedly sure. I hope to once more to the locality and to publish something on the subject. — How are Your projected books going on, I think you were occupied during my stay in England with Fertilisation of Plants, …
- … freshwater deposits of the Cretaceous period ( V. O. Kovalevsky 1875 ). Kovalevsky had spent time in England between June and October 1872 and visited CD sometime before mid-July and on 22 September ( Davitashvili 1951 , p. 157; Gaisinovich ed. 1988 , pp. 180, 210; Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). According to his journal, CD was working on Drosera (the section on sundew for Insectivorous plants ) …
From J. D. Hooker 2 December 1864
Summary
Recounts row at the Royal Society over exclusion of mention of Origin from Sabine’s address awarding Copley Medal to CD.
Encloses two letters to JDH from James Hector in New Zealand.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Dec 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 101: 260–1; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ correspondence 174: 429–31 & 433–4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4692 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … freshwater, with descriptions of 100 new species. [Read 1 December 1864. ] Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 25 (1865–6): 73–184. Belich, James. 1986. The New Zealand Wars, and the Victorian interpretation of racial conflict. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ‘Climbing plants’: …
From B. D. Walsh 29 May 1865
Summary
Discusses several subjects, including examples of "Unity of coloration",
the origin of gall-producing poison,
Wagner’s theory of viviparous larvae,
and stridulation in insects.
Sends a reference supporting CD’s statement in Origin that flies check propagation of horses and cattle.
| Author: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 May 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 179, 179a; DAR 207: 18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4839 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … freshwater univalve mollusca of the United States, including notices of species in other parts of North America. Philadelphia: Conchological Section of the Academy of Natural Science [& others]. ‘Illegitimate offspring of dimorphic and trimorphic plants’: …
To Ernst Krause 18 May 1881
Summary
Thanks EK for his article [on CD’s Movement in plants].
Admires EK’s wide interest in science. Would like to send him something to publish in Kosmos.
Fears his new book [Earthworms] will hardly do, but will send sheets when printed so that EK can decide whether any chapter or a part of one will serve. Victor Carus’s consent would be needed for publication in Kosmos, and CD will ask for it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause |
| Date: | 18 May 1881 |
| Classmark: | The Huntington Library (HM 36215) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13163 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … freshwater shrimp; F. Müller 1881a ), was published in Kosmos , May 1881. Atyoida potimirim is a synonym of Potimirim potimirim , the tiny or neon shrimp. See letter to Francis Darwin, 16 and 17 May 1881 . The paper, ‘Kletterpflanzen. Eine populäre Vorlesung’ (Climbing plants. …
To Charles Alexander Johns 13 August [1868?]
Summary
CD not a good enough botanist to form a judgment of specimen. Does not understand whether CAJ supposes the variety to be a result of hybridism or of the present very hot summer, which CD cannot doubt will have an effect on some British plants in their struggle for life.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | C. A Johns |
| Date: | 13 Aug [1868?] |
| Classmark: | Mitchell Library, Sydney (A27 p. 60) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6312 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Freshwater] Aug 13. Dear Sir I am much obliged for your note; but I am sorry to say that I am not botanist sufficient to form a judgment on the specimen which you have sent. I do not quite understand whether you suppose that the variety is the result of hybridism or of the present peculiar summer, but in any case I sh d think it w d be well worth observing. The thought had not occurred to me, but I dare say this very hot summer will have a marked effect on some British plants …
To August Weismann 5 April 1872
Summary
Comments on AW’s work [Einfluss der Isolierung (1872)].
Discusses formation of local races.
Conchologist should investigate whether species of same genus vary during successive geological periods.
Comments on Franz Hilgendorf ["Über Planorbis multiformis", Monatsber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1866): 474–504].
Believes sexual selection will be judged a powerful agency.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Leopold Friedrich August (August) Weismann |
| Date: | 5 Apr 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 148: 343 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8275 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … plants, published in Cross and self fertilisation in 1876. Moritz Wagner had argued that a population had to be isolated geographically in order to form new species ( Wagner 1868a , 1868b, and 1870). Using successive varieties of a ram’s horn snail referred to as Planorbis multiformis , Weismann argued that new species could form without being isolated from the parent species ( Weismann 1872 , p. 15). Ram’s horn snails are freshwater …
From Fritz Müller 6 March 1866
Summary
Thanks CD for German translation of Origin.
Droughts over the summers have brought about changes in the numbers of plants and animals in the area. The small quantity of Orchestia darwinii that has survived the changes no longer includes two previously common male forms. Great changes also take place without such unusual physical conditions. The disappearance of a briefly abundant bryozoan in local caves has made way not for the return of original bryozoan inhabitants but for a completely new fauna.
| Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Mar 1866 |
| Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 80–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5027A |
Matches: 1 hit
- … plants ( Mabberley 1997 ). Müller refers to the Itajaí Açu river. Müller’s homestead was beside the river about twenty-five miles inland from the the town of Itajahy, and was later incorporated within the town of Blumenau. In November 1855, flooding had caused the river to rise nearly ten metres above its normal level ( Möller 1915–21 , 3: 63–4). Closterium is a genus of freshwater …
To S. P. Woodward [after 4 June 1856]
Summary
Queries from CD on the distribution of molluscan genera referring to SPW’s Manual of the Mollusca [pt 3 (1856)], with SPW’s answers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
| Date: | [after 4 June 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 72: 59–61 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1890 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … plant grows; H. vitrinoides in like manner accompanies the Arum esculentum ” Gould. ’ CD refers to Pfeiffer 1848 . Woodward drew the following diagram to illustrate his point. CD underlined ‘individuals’ in pencil. Woodward wrote: ‘Yes! This is not my experience only—it is the conviction of all collectors . ’ Woodward wrote: ‘There are no recent sea -shells in Eocene strata—but there are land & freshwater …
From Anton Dohrn 11 February 1880
Summary
Sends birthday greetings
and the good news of a subvention for the Zoological Station received from the German government. There are now 20 naturalists working at the Station.
| Author: | Felix Anton (Anton) Dohrn |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Feb 1880 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 218 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12471 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … freshwater planarian worms. Nemertinae is a synonym of Nemertea, the phylum of ribbon-worms. Actiniae is a synonym of Actiniidae, a family of sea anemones. Balanoglossus is a genus of acorn worms. Sipunculoidae, a synonym of Sipunculidae is a family of peanut worms. Caprellidae is a family of skeleton shrimps. Capitellidae is a family of polychaete worms. Echinodermata is the phylum of sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea stars (starfish). Algae are mostly aquatic photosynthetic organisms formerly classed as plants; …
| letter | (30) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
| Bunbury, C. J. F. | (1) |
| Davis, Mary | (1) |
| Dohrn, Anton | (1) |
| Fayrer, Joseph | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Woodward, S. P. | (2) |
| Frankland, Edward | (1) |
| Groves, Henry | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (28) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Woodward, S. P. | (3) |
| Groves, Henry | (2) |
| Oliver, Daniel | (2) |
John Stevens Henslow
Summary
The letters Darwin exchanged with John Stevens Henslow, professor of Botany and Mineralogy at Cambridge University, were among the most significant of his life. It was a letter from Henslow that brought Darwin the invitation to sail round the world as…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters Darwin exchanged with John Stevens Henslow, professor of Botany and Mineralogy at …
Biogeography
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Observations aboard the Beagle During his five year journey around the world on HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin encountered many different landscapes and an enormous variety of flora and fauna. Some of his most…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Observations aboard the Beagle …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am merely slaving over the sickening work of preparing new Editions …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
