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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. B. R. H. Dunker   2 June [1851]

Down Farnborough Kent

June 2d

Dear Sir

I received only yesterday (!) your letter with the P.S. dated February 4th , & the valuable Box of Cirripedia. They were delayed, as I am told by Mr. Morris, at Bremen. I thank you very sincerely for all your kindness, for your letter written in excellent English, & for the Cirripedia which I have been very glad to see.1 I will hereafter return all named, & add some duplicate species not possessed by you. Your collection however is more correctly named than any I have ever seen, but still there are some errors. The Loander specimen is the true B. tintinnabulum, with a purple var. of B. perforatus adhering to it.—2 B. tintinnabulum presents a vast range of variation.—

Some six weeks since I returned, through Mr. Morris all the fossils which you so generously lent me, together with some copies of my small & imperfect monograph of the fossil species;3 & Mr Morris enclosed some Books. We both also wrote to you,4 & are very anxious to know that you have received the parcel safely, will you kindly soon write me a line. I hope to go in a month to press with the recent Lepadidæ or Pedunculated cirripedes, & will send you a copy when it is published. I have also finished about one-third of the Sessile species.

With much respect | Dear Sir | Your’s sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin To | Profr. W. Dunker | &c &c &c

Footnotes

Dunker provided specimens of the sessile cirripedes, forwarded by John Morris, and is cited in Living Cirripedia (1854) in the descriptions of Balanus eburneus (a synonym of Amphibalanus eburneus; p. 248) and Creusia spinulosa (p. 376).
Loander, also called Luanda, is a district of north-west Angola. CD used this specimen as evidence for the species Balanus perforatus appearing as far south as the western coast of Africa (Living Cirripedia (1854): 232, 234).

Bibliography

Fossil Cirripedia (1851): A monograph on the fossil Lepadidæ, or, pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain. By Charles Darwin. London: Palaeontographical Society. 1851.

Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.

Summary

Collection of recent cirripedes received. The fossil cirripedes have been returned.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1431
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Wilhelm Bernhard Rudolph Hadrian (Wilhelm) Dunker
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen (NKS 4941 I, 4to)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1431,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1431.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5

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