skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. E. Darwin   8 February [1881]1

Down, Feb. 8th

My dear W.—

You have sent me splendid information about Rhododendron leaves—2 I cannot doubt from appearance of leaves sent that they have been dragged in by worms.— Your examining so many leaves lying dead & not dragged in has proved especially valuable; because I see in leaves sent by you, that many inserted by base are now narrower in apical part—& many inserted by apex are now narrower in basal part; This surprised me at first, but reflecting that after leaf had been dragged in by base or by apex, the part exposed & standing up in air wd be almost sure to become more infolded & wd thus become narrower.— The form of the leaves whilst lying on the ground wd determine the worms how to drag them into burrow.— I have now got 42 drawn in by base & 20 by apex.— I think this is enough—but if in a week or two your spirits will allow you to pull up a few more, so much the better, for the bigger the number so much the better.— If you do, do not bother to send them or to count more on ground.— It is clear that there is much variability in shape of leaf & in manner of withering.—

Frank sent card about investment, this morning—3 You are a first-rate man to ask to make any observations. Will Sara4 tell me on what points you are not first rate?

your affect Father. | C.D.

There was fierce review against Geikie in last Nature, but I doubt its justice.—5 If, however, bones of rein-deer & Hippopotamus have really been found in close contact in same bed—it tells heavily against interglacial periods.—

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. E. Darwin, 6 February 1881.
Francis Darwin may have been deciding how to invest the money he had received from CD in January (see letter to the Darwin children, 3 January 1881).
Sara Darwin, William’s wife.
A scathing review by William Boyd Dawkins of James Geikie’s Prehistoric Europe: a geological sketch (J. Geikie 1881) was published in Nature, 3 February 1881, pp. 309–10. A reply from Geikie appeared in Nature, 10 February 1881, p. 336.

Bibliography

Geikie, James. 1881. Prehistoric Europe: a geological sketch. London: Edward Stanford.

Summary

Thanks WED for sending leaves and making observations on how earthworms drag them into their burrows.

Doubts justice of fierce review against J. Geikie’s book [Prehistoric Europe (1881)] in Nature [by W. B. Dawkins, 23 (1881): 309–10], but if reindeer and hippopotamus have really been found in close contact in same bed – "it tells horribly against interglacial periods".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-13042
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Erasmus Darwin
Sent from
Down
Source of text
DAR 210.6: 176
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13042,” accessed on 8 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13042.xml

letter