To J. D. Hooker 22 October [1864]1
Down
Oct 22d
My dear Hooker.
You will perhaps like to see second page of enclosed:2 please return it sometime.— Thanks about Harvey, from whom I shall doubtless hear.—3
The Lyells have been here4 & were extremely pleasant, but I saw them only occasionally for 10 minutes & when they went I had an awful day of vomiting; but I am now slowly getting up to my former standard.— I shall soon be confined to a living grave & a fearful evil it is.—
I suppose you have read Tyndall—5 I have now come round again, to Ramsay’s view for third or fourth time; but Lyell says when I read his discussion in the Elements6 I shall recant for fifth time.— What a capital writer Tyndall is!—
In your last note you ask what the Bardsfield oxlip is— it is P. elatior of Jacq. which certainly looks when growing to common eyes different from common oxlip.7 I will fight you to the death, that as Primrose & Cowslip are different in appearance (not to mention odour, habitat & range) & as I can now show that when they cross, the intermediate offspring are sterile like ordinary Hybrids, they must be called as good species as a man & a Gorilla.— I agree that if Scotts Red Cowslip grew wild or spread itself & did not vary into common cowslip (& we have absolutely no proof of primrose or cowslip varying into each other) & as it will not cross with cowslip, it would be a perfectly good species.—8
The power of remaining for a good long period constant, I look at as the essence of a species, combined with an appreciable amount of difference; & no one can say there is not this amount of difference between Primrose & Cowslip.—
Yours affectionately | C. Darwin
Do not go on purpose; but if you walk through Orchid House & see any Stanhopea in flower send me 2 or 3 pollen-masses— I want them for special purpose to cross a plant of mine which will be in flower in 2 or 3 days.—9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.
Lyell, Charles. 1865. Elements of geology, or the ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants as illustrated by geological monuments. 6th edition, revised. London: John Murray.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
‘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.
Summary
To Lyell’s chagrin, CD has come round again to A. C. Ramsay’s glacial theory.
On primrose and cowslip, CD maintains they are good species, notwithstanding Scott’s work.
CD defines species by power of remaining constant for a good long time and showing appreciable amount of difference from close species.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4642
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 252
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4642,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4642.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12