To Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli 12 June [1866]1
Down Bromley, | Kent S.E.
June 12
Dear Sir
I hope you will excuse the liberty which I take in writing to you. I have just read though imperfectly your “Enstehung & Begriff” & have been so greatly interested by it that I have sent it to be translated, as I am a poor German Scholar.2 I have just finished a new edition of my origin which will be translated into German,3 & my object in writing to you is to say that if you should see this edition you would think that I had borrowed from you without acknowledgement, two discussions on the beauty of flowers & fruit; but I assure you every word was printed off before I had opened your pamphlet.4 Should you like to possess a copy of either the German or English New Edition I should be proud to send one.5 I may add, with respect to the beauty of Flowers, that I have already hinted the same views as you hold in my paper on Lythrum.6
Many of your criticisms on my views are the best which I have met with, but I could answer some at least to my own satisfaction;7 & I regret extremely that I had not read your pamphlet before printing my new edition— On one or two points, I think you have a little misunderstood me, though I daresay I have not been cautious in expressing myself. The remark which has struck me most is that on the position of the leaves not having been acquired thro’ natural selection from not being of any special importance to the plant.8 I well remember being formerly troubled by an analagous difficulty, namely the position of the ovules their anatropous condition &c.9
It was owing to forgetfulness that I did not notice this difficulty in the Origin. Although I can offer no explanation of such facts, & only hope to see that they may be explained, yet I hardly see how they support the doctrine of some law of necessary development for it is not clear to me that a plant with its leaves placed at some particular angle or with its ovules in some particular position, thus stands higher than another plant.10 But I must apologise for troubling you with these remarks.
As I much wish to possess your photograph, I take the liberty of enclosing my own11 & with sincere respect I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Nägeli, Carl Wilhelm von. 1865. Entstehung und Begriff der naturhistorischen Art. 2d edition. Munich: Verlag der königl. Akademie.
Origin 5th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 5th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869.
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.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Summary
Comments on CWvN’s Die Entstehung und Begriff [der Naturhistorischen Art (1864)].
Discussion of beauty of flowers in new edition of Origin not based on CWvN’s article.
Comments on CWvN’s argument that flower structures are not due to natural selection.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5119
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 147: 181
- Physical description
- C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5119,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5119.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14