To Thomas Rivers 27 April [1866]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E. [6 Queen Anne Street, London]
April 27th
My dear Sir
From reading your last article in Journal of Hort. I am going to beg a favour; & favours you have always granted me at least twice over.— It is to make a memorandum, & send me, when partially in flower, a raceme of Cytisus purpureus-elongatus. & at same time, if you have it, a raceme of C. Adami.—2 My tree of latter is dead, but I could probably get flowers by sending to Westerham;3 yet I shd. prefer flowers from you, for then I shd. have them fresh at same time with those of C. purp-elongatus. These flowers ought to be enclosed in tin-foil or in very small tin-cannister & sent by Post.—
Why I want them is that Prof. Caspary states that in C. Adami the pollen in appearance is good, whilst the ovules are bad. Now this does not occur in any known sterile ordinary hybrid, & Caspary hence argues that C. Adami is not a common hybrid. So that I am very curious to examine pollen & ovules of C. purp-elongatus; as I likewise will of Watererer’s supposed hybrid between C. laburnum & alpinus.—4
Mr Robson does not know what he is talking about & in how odious a spirit he answered you.—5
If you will kindly grant me the above favour, do not trouble yourself to write, but when time comes send me the flowers to dissect. My health at last is better, & I am able to do a little work.
My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
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.
Post Office directory of the six home counties: Post Office directory of the six home counties, viz., Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks for racemes of Cytisus purpureus-elongatus and C. adami for comparison, because Robert Caspary argues that C. adami is not a common hybrid.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5070
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Rivers
- Sent from
- London, Queen Anne St, 6
- Source of text
- Remember When Auctions (dealers) (Catalogue 41, 16 March 1997)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5070,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5070.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14