To Albany Hancock 10 February [1853]
Down Farnborough Kent
Feb. 10th
My dear Sir
I trouble you with one line to say that amongst the few remaining & on the cut up & previously (imperfectly as it turns out) examined specimens, I have found plenty of Male Alcippes,—indeed hardly any without some: so that I am in no want of more specimens at present,1 I shd., however, be very glad to have hereafter some few to distribute in a dry state on the continent, when I return the specimens in my possession: & indeed I shd. like a few more to examine the form of cavity, though I fancy I have made out this pretty well. You may imagine how peculiar the appearance of the male Alcippe is, when I mention, that, though having had experience how diverse an aspect the males put on, I now know that I looked at a Male, during the first day or two, & never dreamed it was a cirripede!2 I suppose after all you have done in the anatomy of the Mollusca no structure seems very difficult to you to make out,3 but I have found Alcippe one of the most difficult creatures, I have ever attempted to make out.4
Yours very truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Summary
Has found plenty of male Alcippe on specimens. Would eventually like more specimens. Did not recognise males at first. Has found Alcippe difficult to make out.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1500
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Albany Hancock
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1500,” accessed on 24 March 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1500.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5