To Charles Turner [1 April – 16 June 1863?]1
Sir
I hope that you will excuse the liberty which I take in asking from you information on one small point, with permission to quote your name as my authority in a work which I am preparing for publication.2 I have found that the varieties of several kinds of Hollyhock come true from seed;3 now what I am anxious to know is, whether you find it necessary to grow the different varieties far apart from each other, in order to prevent crossing & to get true seed.— As I have repeatedly watched Bees carrying pollen from one variety to the other, I cannot understand how the seed can be true, unless the plants are grown very far apart: & yet I have been told that this plan is not always followed.—4
If you will have the kindness to answer me this question, I shd. feel extremely much obliged. I should, also, be glad to know which varieties you have found come truest by seed.—5
Hoping that you will excuse the liberty which I have taken & grant this favour I beg leave to remain | Sir | Your obliged servant
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks correspondent whether, when growing hollyhocks, he finds it necessary to space out the different varieties to prevent crossing and thus to obtain true seed [see Variation 2: 108].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3886
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Turner
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 96: 12
- Physical description
- ADraft 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3886,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3886.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11