From Isaac Anderson-Henry 24 April 1863
Hay Lodge, | Trinity, | Edinburgh.
April 24/63
My dear Sir
I embrace the first leisure to thank you for your very obliging note of the 20th Inst.1 and the beautifully executed likeness of yourself so kindly accorded to me.2 I have no Carte else I am so proud to possess
I was not a little struck to learn that they had got at Kew the supposed hybrid Bryanthus (erectus) wild from North America. Having a Letter from Dr Hooker by the same post which brought me yours, I have in my answer embraced the opportunity of asking him about it.3 May it not be the B. Gmelini a true north American Species, not previously introduced and noticed by D Don in Edin: Phil: Journal 17 p 160.?4 At same time there is, I must confess, a mystery about Mr Cunninghams hybrid, (B. erectus) His nephew now in a Nursery (Messrs Lawsons) hard by here, owned to me that his uncle was not quite certain of its parentage tho he believed it to be as given out,—viz a cross between the Rhods. Chamæcistus & a Menziesia.5 I think I mentioned to you that I was at that time at work myself attempting a mule between these same things—but I made the Rhodothamnus, and not the Menziesia the seed bearer,—& did not succeed.6 On hearing of Mr C’s cross, I inverted the X, and made Menziesia (Phyllodoce) Cærulea the female, & the R Chamæcistus the male parent which succeeded and from the seeds I raised one or two plants, which I lost early by the incursion of a snail. I then held that those in that order must have been the parents of the B. erectus. I have this year wrought the R. Chamæcistus on both, vizt on the Phyllodoce (M) Cærulea and M. empetriformis. I am not sure that any one of the Xs on M. Cærulea has taken—but all of those (4 or 5) on the empetriformis seem to have taken, & the pods are already unmistakeably swollen with the ripening seeds. This looks like confirmation of Mr C’s selection and success. And I need not say that long experience (20 years of it) has made me most careful by previous emasculation, &c, to secure against the interference of insects
Many many thanks for your most interesting Paper on the Linum family.7 I wrought upon that tribe last year, and have, if true, one cross from it—vizt. L. rubrum Grandiflorum (annual) crossed on L. album, a perennial, the plants from which are now six inches high. But I was grievously puzzled & perplexed by the varying forms of the sexual organs on the different species,— in so much that I began to conclude from these and the want of success that Botanists had erred in the arrangement of the tribe, & that several species must be removed to another family. I wrought on a great many sps.— L. trigynum (with its 3 styles) L. flavum, L. perenne, L Corymbiflorum, yellow (a most obstinate thing which bore seed in no form), L. album a fine large white flowered perennial, L. flavum (which likewise bore no seed) and L. rubrum Grandiflorum— The L. trigynum let alone was the best seed bearer of them all; but I accomplished no certain cross upon it. I have the whole in array for further operations this year, & with the light you have thrown upon the genus, I will now resume my experiments with fresh avidity8
If I remember aright, I was perplexed in the same way in the Phlox family; with these short and long stamens—and perhaps it was from this cause & not falling on the corresponding styles, that I failed often, where I had reckoned success certain
And there are other tribes with which I have been grievously baffled, tho I cannot now recall them, for the like reason
Your discovery I am persuaded involves a law which pervades innumerable races.9 It is akin to Newtons discovery of the law of Gravitation10 The more I think of it, the more I am astounded by its importance & the further discoveries to which it will lead. I had long believed that different results were produceable by the different pairs of anthers on plants having these organs of unequal length,—e.g. the Geraniaceæ, the Rhodoraceæ &c &c Now, we must have regard to the styles—the length of them—tho I incline to the belief, that this law may be found limited mainly to tribes having the anthers all of equal lengths.
Believe me; you are yet but on the threshold,—tho you have unlocked the portal in which the greatest merit lies.
If I can aid in any way do kindly suggest to me Mean time I remain | very faithfully yours | Is. anderson Henry
I am keeping mind the experiment on the top flower of the Geranium11
Many thanks for your suggestion as to Bates Travels—12 I devour all these Books of Travels whose writers speak at all intelligibly of Natural history But how few of them do?
P.S. On looking again, I find appearance of one pod of Menziesia Cærulea X Rhod. Chamæcistus having taken
We have formed a Microscopic Club here limited to 15 among whom are a good many Professors of the University. Dr Greville is our Chairman13 Will the knowledge of the microscope aid me much in any experiments you would suggest?
Charles Darwin Esqr F.R.S. &c &c
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1863. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Don, David. 1834. An attempt at a new arrangement of the Ericaceæ. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 17: 150–60.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Medical directory: The London medical directory … every physician, surgeon, and general practitioner resident in London. London: C. Mitchell. 1845. The London and provincial medical directory. London: John Churchill. 1848–60. The London & provincial medical directory, inclusive of the medical directory for Scotland, and the medical directory for Ireland, and general medical register. London: John Churchill. 1861–9. The medical directory … including the London and provincial medical directory, the medical directory for Scotland, the medical directory for Ireland. London: J. & A. Churchill. 1870–1905.
‘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.]
Summary
Bryanthus erectus, said by [D. D.?] Cunningham to be a hybrid, has been found wild in North America.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4126
- From
- Isaac Anderson/Isaac Anderson Henry
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Edinburgh
- Source of text
- DAR 159: 65
- Physical description
- ALS 7pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4126,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4126.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11
