To W. A. Leighton 21 November [1858]1
Down, Bromley, Kent
Nov. 21
My dear Sir
It is remarkably kind of you to take such great trouble in sending me the specimens & so full & precise an account of your observations. I have been particularly glad to see your specimens. I am utterly perplexed at present whether to put the graduated changes in your specimens to simple variation or to crossing. Your specimens have recalled to my mind some statements of Gärtner of the great amount of difference in purchased seed of Leguminous plants reported to be pure.2 I have received from a Gardener some very curious specimens of common Beans apparently crossed.3 There is an article, I see, in today’s Chronicle.—4
Thank you much for your permission to use anyhow your information. I hardly know what I shall do, & shall anyhow wait at present & see if any other cases turn up. I am so busy that I rather grudge the time for another article in the Chronicle. But your information will not be wasted, as I shall have ultimately to come to some conclusion on the subject, which has long perplexed me.5
How many years have rolled over our heads since we were at school together, & how little we then thought we should correspond on scientific subjects!
With my cordial thanks, pray believe me | my dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1849. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich. Mit Hinweisung auf die ähnlichen Erscheinungen im Thierreiche, ganz umgearbeitete und sehr vermehrte Ausgabe der von der Königlich holländischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
Summary
Thanks WAL for specimens and observations [on scarlet runner beans]. CD is perplexed whether to account for the changes as due to simple variation or to crossing. The information will be used when he finally comes to a conclusion on the subject [see Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 151].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2368
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Allport Leighton
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 112: B97–8
- Physical description
- C 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2368,” accessed on 24 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2368.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7