To J. D. Hooker 1 December [1856]1
Down Bromley Kent
Decr 1st
My dear Hooker
I am become a good deal interested in crossing speculations, though I can come to no certain conclusion.— With respect to Trees, which from number of flowers on same individual offer, considerable difficulty to the probability of crossing, I want to know whether the following would cost you much trouble, & whether you feel the least interest on the point.2 I have had copied in good hand a list in order, divided into Families, of the 700–800 New Zealand plants.3 Now I have no idea how far you have in your mind the memory of the N.Z plants: if distinctly it would not take you half an hour to go over the list (as many Families might be skipped) & mark with pencil cross the Trees & double Pencil cross those which were also mono- or diœcious or polygamous.4 I tried to do it, but broke down in not being able to decide between bushes & trees, & this must be arbitary.— I have done the few Trees of England, taking Loudon as rule what to call trees & what bushes, & you will see result.5 If N. Zealand with so different a Flora gave at all same result, it would appear probable that there was some connection between trees & the separation of sexes (which wd. favour crossing).—6 Loudon calls the Viburnum, Box, Arbutus & Juniper Bushes.—
I think in your N. Zealand Flora you have given the number of plants of all kinds with separated sexes, which would have to be considered in the result.—
Now it will wholly depend on the state of your memory whether this would be worth doing, as it would by no means be worth your having to consult your own Flora.— What say you? Shall I send the M.S. list? Can you tell me genus of enclosed seed, which was in Birds Dung & has since germinated.—7
Ever yours | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1853–5. Flora Novæ-Zelandiæ. 2 vols. Pt 2 of The botany of the Antarctic voyage of HM discovery ships Erebus and Terror, in the years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. London: Lovell Reeve.
Loudon, John Claudius. 1842. An encyclopaedia of trees and shrubs; being the arboretum et fruticetum Britannicum abridged. London.
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.
Summary
Questions JDH on separation of sexes in trees in New Zealand flora.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2008
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 114: 185
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2008,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2008.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6