To J. D. Hooker 6 October [1862]
Down Bromley Kent
Oct 6th.
My dear Hooker.
Sincere thanks for opinion on Drosera, which will be of real use as guide & your note shall be put in the Drosera Portfolios.1 I do not know whether others know the feeling, but if I work for a time hard on any subject, I become absolutely incapable of judging of its value.
I enclose 2 Queries, which you can answer by a word.
But here is a rather more bothersome affair, on which I am really ashamed to trouble Oliver without your aid.2 If you will ask Oliver, I think he will tell you I have got a real odd case in Lythrum.3 It interests me extremely; & seems to me the strongest case of propagation recorded amongst plants or animals, viz a necessary triple alliance between 3 hermaphrodites.— I feel sure I can now prove the truth of case, from a multitude of crosses made this summer.—4
Now Oliver at my request sent me a set of buds of L. Graefferi; but I most stupidly forgot that I shd. require open flowers (i.e. with petals expanded) to establish comparison with L. salicaria: the buds answered capitally & I got pollen from all the anthers; but I cannot complete case without open flowers.—5 I do not care for localities, if I have single flower from 6 or 7 distinct plants. This species is trimorphic like L. salicaria. Some flowers of L. thymifolia would be extraordinarily interesting to me, as Vaucher says it is dimorphic;6 & I am most curious to see how a trimorphic form passes or graduates into di-morphic. Is it very much trouble to turn to these plants in the Herbarium?— No case has so much interested me. & I shall write paper for Linnean.—7
I hope that you may have gone to Cambridge & read your Wellwitschia paper;8 it does seem a most grand case to connect two such groups; & I presume you will leave the Gymnosperms, which I am rather glad of.— Oh for your chart of vegetable orders to hang up & study!— I failed in going to Cambridge from another accursed attack of Eczema. I shd. so much like to pay you a visit of an hour or two at Kew, that I must try; but I get to dread more & more fatigue. I grieve to hear about Miss Henslow.9
Pray thank Oliver for his clear & favourable notice of my Orchid Book.10 I have been going through the Bibliography & picking out references: by Heavens what labour; I shd. not have thought any mortal man could have done it.11
Farewell. This is a horridly dull & troublesome letter. Farewell | Yours affectly | C. Darwin
Queries, which you can answer by a word on this paper.—
(1) In two forms of Linum perenne, I find in one, the stigmatic surface faces the axis of flower; in the other form twist of style the five stigmas face the circumference of flower. Is this a character of any importance? For instance, if you found this difference in a form, which you doubted whether to rank as a species or variety, would this difference decide you?12
(2) Shall I return the 3 Melastomatads by Railway; must I mark by any Railway?
(N.B They came here much broken, & I fear will suffer in their return.)13
P.S. Here is a fact which may possibly interest you. In a field here I find many Verbascum thapsus & lychnitis; & lots of varieties making an almost perfect series between these two distinct forms. I am sure many species have been run together on less perfect evidence. But lo & behold every one of these intermediate forms are absolutely sterile! & no doubt are natural hybrids. I found 33 of these hybrids in one field!!14
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
‘Specific difference in Primula’: On the specific difference between Primula veris, Brit. Fl. (var. officinalis of Linn.), P. vulgaris, Brit. Fl. (var. acaulis, Linn.), and P. elatior, Jacq.; and on the hybrid nature of the common oxlip. With supplementary remarks on naturally produced hybrids in the genus Verbascum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 19 March 1868.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 10 (1869): 437–54.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
‘Two forms in species of Linum’: On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation, in several species of the genus Linum. By Charles Darwin. [Read 5 February 1863.] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7 (1864): 69–83. [Collected papers 2: 93–105.]
Vaucher, Jean Pierre Etienne. 1841. Histoire physiologique des plantes d’Europe ou exposition des phénomènes qu’elles présentent dans les diverses périodes de leur développement. 4 vols. Paris: Marc Aurel Frères.
Summary
Thanks for opinion on Drosera. After working for a time on a subject he is absolutely incapable of judging its value.
Has found a case in Lythrum of a necessary triple alliance between three hermaphrodites; the strangest case of propagation recorded among plants or animals.
Asks for L. thymifolia to see how a trimorphic form passes or graduates into dimorphic.
Questions JDH on Linum perenne.
Has found 33 hybrids in one field between Verbascum thapsus and V. lychnitis. The perfect series of varieties would have justified running the species together, but every one of the intermediate forms is sterile.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3753
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 164
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3753,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3753.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10