To J. S. Henslow 23 [August or September 1855]1
Down
23d
My dear Henslow
The enclosed Umbellifer has made me very unhappy: I cannot make it out: will you name it for me? I hate the whole Family. It grew 3–4 ft high. in rather moist thicket. To save trouble I send envelope all ready directed.—
On account of two statements made by naturalists, viz (one) that the most “typical form of a species is that which produces most seed,”2 I am very anxious to compare number of seed of wild & cultivated plant (I can easily see how false the above aphorism is, but I want precise facts) & I most curiously forgot it wd. not suffice to count seeds of one umbel of Wild Celery so will you get one of your little girls to get very finest wild Celery near you, & either count (& pay well for me) all the seeds, or count umbels, & count seeds in an average umbel.— I can manage Carrot & Parsnip myself, & have wild & tame plants, marked. I have got Wild Cabbage & asparagus, also, in hand.— (our wild Parsnips are poor, so perhaps it wd be good to let some little girls count.)3 There has been another more wonderful statement made than even the above,—viz that rich cultivation (not merely of the individual but of the race) lessens the fertility of all organic beings, by which assumption several authors (as I daresay you may have noticed) have attempted to upset Malthus’ most logical writings—4 I mention all this just to show that my odd wishes are not absolutely idle.
Most truly your’s | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Godwin, William. 1820. Of population. An enquiry concerning the power of increase in the numbers of mankind, being an answer to Mr Malthus’s essay on that subject. London.
Hickson, William Edward. 1849. An essay on the principle of population. Westminster Review 52: 133–201.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks JSH to identify an umbellifer.
Describes his efforts to compare number of seeds of wild and cultivated plants.
Asks that more wild celery be collected and seeds counted. Seeks to verify whether "most typical form produces most seed" and whether cultivation lessens fertility.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1748
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Stevens Henslow
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 93: A112–13
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1748,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1748.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5