From Thomas Moore to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 15 February 1876
Chelsea Botanic Garden
Feb 15. 1876
My dear Dyer
The Cinerarias have no special names but are such as would be obtained from any good packet of seed of the florists Cinerarias. This therefore can scarcely be what Mr Darwin means—though there are varieties of similar character to which trivial names are applied. As a rule, however, fewer Cinerarias are now named that formerly, as it is found that a good strain of the seed will yield a large proportion of what are considered as good flowers for decoration
I presume Mr Darwin wishes for the name of the species or type from which the garden Cinerarias have sprung.1 This is principally from Senecio cruentus (originally called Cineraria cruenta: hence the garden name) partly from S. Tussilaginis more or less originally intermixed with one or all of the fruticosi species named in Db. Prod. vi. 409— See Bot. Mag. t 3215, Bot. Mag. 1839 t. 7.2 For the last 30 years or more cross breeding between the varieties successively raised has been going on, so that very little of the originals is left.
Yours very truly | Thos Moore3
Footnotes
Bibliography
Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de and Candolle, Alphonse de. 1824–73. Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, sive enumeratio contracta ordinum generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta. 19 vols. Paris: Treuttel & Würtz [and others].
Summary
Responds to CD’s request for the names of species from which Cineraria varieties supplied to him have sprung. [Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 335 n.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10394
- From
- Thomas Moore
- To
- William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
- Sent from
- Chelsea Bot. Gard.
- Source of text
- DAR 76: B186–7
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10394,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10394.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24