To John Denny 9 July 1872
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
July 9. 1872
Dear Sir
I have read with great interest yr two articles at the Congress, published in the Gardener’s Chron., copies of which I owe to the kindness of some one with the initial “D”, perhaps to you.1 I have thought that you wd perhaps excuse my asking you a question. Is the D. of Cornwall Pelargonium fertile with its own pollen, as well as with that of the 2 or 3 vars mentioned by you, whilst it is sterile with other reputed vars? Or is the Duke sterile with its own pollen & fertile only with certain vars? This latter fact is highly remarkable & wd deserve to be published in full detail—i.e. the number of trials on father’s & mother’s side &c. But the former case wd be quite new, & in my opinion of the highest importance. Might I also ask whether you have repeatedly tried to fertilize other vars of the Ivy-leaved Pelarg., besides Peltatum-elegans, with pollen of the Zonal, & have always failed; whilst, as I understand, you have succeeded easily with var. peltatum.2 Very few such cases have been recorded, & here again I hope to see full details hereafter published.3
Your statement that the transmittance of characters from either parent depends in large part on strength of constitution is quite new to me;4 & it wd be very interesting to discover whether the same rule holds with other families of plants. With respect to transmittance of character, when both parents are of equally good constitution, I shd expect from what little I know that different rules wd hold in difft families.5 If you are not already acquainted with Gärtner’s 2 works, you wd find them valuable & interesting.6
I hope that you will forgive the liberty I have taken in troubling you, & I remain with much respect | Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1844. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Befruchtungsorgane der vollkommeneren Gewächse und über die natürliche und künstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen. Pt 1 of Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Befruchtung der vollkommeneren Gewächse. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
Gärtner, Karl Friedrich von. 1849. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich. Mit Hinweisung auf die ähnlichen Erscheinungen im Thierreiche, ganz umgearbeitete und sehr vermehrte Ausgabe der von der Königlich holländischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
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.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Wilkinson, Anne. 2007. The passion for pelargoniums: how they found their place in the garden. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
Summary
Has read JD’s articles in the Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1872): 872, 904–5].
Questions him on the fertility of certain varieties of Pelargonium which are fertile with some varieties but infertile with others.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8403
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Denny
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- University of Otago Library, Special Collections (DeB MS 55)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 4pp & ADraftS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8403,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8403.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20