Dear Sir,

I make no apology for writing to you, as I know you so well through your works that you seem an old friend, and I have so long had the intention of writing to you that my apology perhaps should be for having so long delayed carrying out my intention. It is not likely that you are acquainted with my name, though you may have met some of my “Notes” in the “American Naturalist” and “American Entomologist”. I have not as yet found time to read your “Descent of Man”; but have glanced at a few of the Criticisms—most of them, of course, unfavorable, as was to be expected.

Since leaving England, nearly 21 years ago, I have resided in this country, most of that time spending my summers on the Great Lakes, camping on their shores, &c.,— I have thus been brought face to face with nature in an uncommon degree. My attention, however, has been chiefly directed to plants; those I have studied in their native haunts, and have watched their peculiar variations in a state of nature. I am convinced that many of the most wonderful facts in Biology are yet to be discovered in this field. I have accumulated some interesting matter, of which little has seen the light   Should you consider it worth while, I could let you have a selection from my loose notes. Observation has shown me that certain families and genera have certain peculiarities of variation, that is they incline to vary in certain directions. For instance I have noticed in the Lobelia an inclination to produce albinos. I have found the L. Kalmii L. of this form on the north shore of Lake Superior, growing with the usual form, and albinos of the L. Cardinalis L. and L. syphilitica L. are frequently found, intermediate tints of these latter being sometimes met with.¹ So also of some of the other species. I have thought that some seasons were more abundant of albinos than others, and that the year 1868 was peculiarly prolific of them. The L. Cardinalis in its native haunts (always swampy) is very different in appearance from that cultivated in Great Britain, being of less robust habit, having less of the mat-like growth, and with taller, more slender stem, bearing fewer, more scattered and smaller flowers, with less of that fine velvety bloom. Notwithstanding it is a strikingly beautiful flower. I mention this, as it can hardly have been over a hundred years under cultivation. Here it is not found in gardens.

Again, I find many of the solitary-headed Compositae inclined (as might be expected) to produce two heads. This comes from the strong characteristic of the family, displayed in the many-flowered head. I have collected in Canada and in this neighborhood the common Dandelion (Taraxacum deus-leonis, Desf.),² indigenous with us in the North, of every shade of form, varying from the simply-flattened spreading head, hardly noticable from the normal, to that in which it is divided into two distinct heads each provided with its separate calyx. How suggestive as to the production of many of its racemose- or panacled-headed congeners. How slight the steps from these sessile heads to pedicled ones, and then to a multiplication of them. How can the conclusion be resisted that the branched stem of the Pyrrhopappus, or the panacled scapes of the Lactuca, Nabalus, Hieracium, &c., had a like origin.—³

In the Rosaceae the inclination to vary is chiefly in the stamens and petals, the former being changed to the latter, and, though not so frequently, the latter to the former. An interesting instance of this last came to my notice on the South Shore of Lake Superior, in two localities far removed from cultivation and even from the abode of man, in the Fragaria Virginiana Ehrh. var. Illinoensis, the petals in a large number of plants (nearly a hundred plants in each case) having either partially or totally changed to stamens. This case I considered worthy of record in the American Naturalist, as an instance of a plant not satisfied with the variation it had already accomplished, but still evincing its inclination to progress.⁴ I might multiply instances, but will confine myself to one more.

The Nardosmia palmata, Hook., a composite plant, considered rare, and so mentioned by Gray, I found growing by the acre, or I might rather say the mile, on the north shore of Lake Superior, in the belt of woods clothing the low ground lying between the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains and the lake shore. But in all this I found not a single flowering specimen! The same was observed by me at the base of the Porcupine Mountains on the South Shore of the same lake, in damp woods; not a blossom being found in such locations. But where openings had been made in the woods, such as roads cut through to the Copper Mines, &c., I found it flowering abundantly. In one such place I found plants in which the scape had lost its corymbose character & had become racemose, having the general appearance of Lactuca elongata, Muhl., for which I at first mistook them, and rising to the enormous height of six feet (the plant in general seldom greatly exceeding one foot); as though their pent up powers were exulting & overflowing in their suddenly found liberty.⁵ The plant generally blossoms freely in fields or open copses. But how noteworthy that it should be found in such rare and remarkable abundance in localities unfitted for the full development of its powers. As you doubtless know, it propagates by underground runners, & perhaps its reproductive energies checked in the one direction, expended themselves as much as possible in the other. At least I thus explain a portion of the facts.— My narrow limits will not permit the discussion of other suggestions which will probably present themselves to you.— Before closing I will mention an interesting fact with respect to the Wild Buffalo of our Great West, which you might make use of. When attacked by the Indians the Bulls invariably drive the cows & calves to the centre, & so retreat before their enemies. If a calf is wounded, it is almost impossible to capture it, the Bulls taking it at once under their special protection, carefully tossing it before them as they retire, or, more wonderful still, one of them raising it on his head, just behind his horns, thus carries it till a place of safety is reached.

I have for a long time been a believer in the development theory—long before I met your works. The majority of our young naturalists here hold to that belief in one form or another, and not a few of the older ones have either embraced it totally or greatly modified their views. Prof. Asa Gray has helped the introduction of Darwinism greatly. I have known him many years, & had the pleasure of visiting him not long ago at Cambridge.

I think many are offended because of your doctrine from the prominence given to Selection, & its apparent concealment of the natural laws, & inherent tendency; though I am satisfied you never drop these out of sight.

Excuse the length of this rambling letter, & believe me | Yours sincerely | Henry Gillman.