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Movement in Plants
Summary
The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…
Matches: 14 hits
- … The power of movement in plants , published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work …
- … Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin …
- … the botanical institute at Würzburg for two summers and exchanged letters with his father about …
- … especially bad, Darwin had taken up the study of climbing plants, one of his ‘hobby-horses’, to keep …
- … of information from correspondents in response to the work, and by 1873 began preparing a second …
- … year, Darwin published a much longer work, Insectivorous plants , also the result of research …
- … J. V. Carus, 7 February 1875 ). While Climbing plants focused mostly on the structure and …
- … organs and the mechanics of their movement, Insectivorous plants investigated the physiological …
- … work, Darwin would attempt ‘ to bring all the diversified movements of Plants under one general law …
- … on human and animal physiology to explain how certain facial movements usually associated with …
- … of water’ Darwin’s interest in the diversified movements of plants was stimulated by a …
- … I am pretty well convinced that I shall make out my case of movements as a protection against rain …
- … in mature plants, but he increasingly focussed on the movements of the first leaves to appear when a …
- … Darwin told Thiselton-Dyer, ‘ I expect to find such movements very general with cotyledons & I …
Climbing Plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A monograph by which to work After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in…
Matches: 8 hits
- … A monograph by which to work After the publication of On the Origin of Species , …
- … rather than as a theoretician or a synthetic thinker. One of these works, On the Movements and …
- … proof-sheets that I was forced to leave them very badly and often obscurely expressed. The paper …
- … reading a short paper by Asa Gray, published in 1858, on the movements of the tendrils of a …
- … Letters Letter Packet: Climbing movement in plants Letter 10214 - …
- … about the mechanism by which tendrils from climbing plants begin to spiral after clasping an object. …
- … that he plans to publish with his old papers on climbing plants. Letter 8656 - Asa …
- … Charles Darwin, were able to study the sensitivity and rapid movements of tendrils. This experiment …
4.34 'Punch', Sambourne cartoon 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction Linley Sambourne’s cartoon in Punch, a ‘Suggested Illustration’ for Darwin’s forthcoming book on The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875) is another playful transformation of the author into an ape or monkey. However,…
Matches: 3 hits
- … Illustration’ for Darwin’s forthcoming book on The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875 …
- … is more complete: Darwin’s likeness to a small and perhaps cuddly monkey is strengthened by the …
- … Sambourne is known to have read Darwin’s books, and fantasies of animal–human hybridity are common, …
Climbing plants
Summary
Darwin’s book Climbing plants was published in 1865, but its gestation began much earlier. The start of Darwin’s work on the topic lay in his need, owing to severe bouts of illness in himself and his family, for diversions away from his much harder book on…
Matches: 15 hits
- … Darwin’s book Climbing plants was published in 1865, but its gestation began much earlier. The …
- … easy plant to raise in pot ’. Gray immediately sent seeds of the two plants he had himself used to …
- … poor health. He did not lose his sense of humour, though, and told his best friend Joseph Dalton …
- … it, but makes no mention whatsoever of work on ‘Climbing plants’. His letters tell a different story …
- … or elsewhere ’ (The American Journal of Science and Arts was commonly known as ‘Silliman’s …
- … Perhaps some day I will write a little paper on these movements ’. Clearly, the seeds of another …
- … because Darwin had made a great number of observations and experiments before looking at any of the …
- … revolutions of the stems and tendrils of climbing plants had been long ago observed by Palm and …
- … these three authors, Darwin might have given up on climbing plants, thinking he had little to add. …
- … delight in ’. Hooker was always encouraging, sending more plants and noting that Darwin was ‘“ …
- … , leaf-tendrils are sensitive but have not spontaneous movements, like tendrils of Cucurbitaceæ & …
- … dispelled the mistaken old view ‘ that animals moved & plants did not ’. Plant …
- … I have: neither Hooker nor Oliver knew anything of these movements ’. Darwin went on to describe in …
- … of work and have been greatly interested by the spontaneous movements and irritability of tendrils …
- … long, that no one will ever read it ’. ‘On the movements and habits of climbing plants’ was …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 15 hits
- … prediction, all seeds defecated or regurgitated by guans … and toucans … in the aviary experiments …
- … were essentially working on the same puzzle: the existence of bright colours in seeds that have no …
- … on at Down also have ecological resonances: the activities of earthworms; the mix of species in a …
- … As we shall see, though Darwin’s work was pivotal – and in more ways than one – in establishing the …
- … on movement in root radicles as ‘unskilfully made and improperly explained’ (quoted in Chadarevian …
- … the old, purely observational tradition of natural history, and at the same time also challenged the …
- … performed. He brought his experiments into the natural world and inspired an experimental tradition …
- … Angræcum and other deep tubular flowers, those individual plants of the Angræcum which had the …
- … probosces up to the very base, would be fertilised. These plants would yield most seed, and the …
- … conceive how each form became so excellently adapted to its habits of life. I then began …
- … most important agent. I was prepared from having studied the habits of animals to appreciate the …
- … John Murray. Darwin, Charles. 1865. On the movements and habits of climbing plants . …
- … & Norgate. Darwin, Charles. 1875. Insectivorous plants . London: John Murray. …
- … kingdom; or, the structure, classification, and uses of plants, illustrated upon the natural system. …
- … Sachs, Julius von. 1887. Lectures on the physiology of plants . Translated by H. M. Ward. Oxford: …
Earthworms
Summary
As with many of Darwin’s research topics, his interest in worms spanned nearly his entire working life. Some of his earliest correspondence about earthworms was written and received in the 1830s, shortly after his return from his Beagle voyage, and his…
Matches: 10 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Experiment Earthworms and Wedgwood cousins As with …
- … when seeking information on pigeon morphology, the action of climbing plants, and biogeography, …
- … Chronicle . Scientific evidence for the history of life Darwin chose to study …
- … natural selection working alone. Similarly, The Power of Movements in Plants (1880) was a study …
- … was a fitting end to a lifetime of varied natural studies and theoretical work. …
- … Through the Action of Worms. London: John Murray. Chapters 1 and 3. Letters …
- … her father Josiah, this letter conveys the details of when and how parish fields around their home …
- … 3 January 1872] Letters 8144 , 8169 , and 8171 - Between Charles Darwin …
- … playing any music. How are they moving? Do they react to movements of the pots? Do you have a …
- … Objectives: - make detailed observations of earthworms' movements and habits - observe …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 11 hits
- … on 11 July 1864 : ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having …
- … after the long illness that had plagued him since the spring of 1863. Because of poor health, Darwin …
- … month, Darwin began to consult William Jenner, professor of clinical medicine at University College, …
- … seeds of Lythrum , crossing cowslips with polyanthuses, and searching for specimens of the …
- … Lythrum (‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria ’) and sent it to the Linnean Society of London, …
- … he finished a preliminary draft of his paper on climbing plants in mid-September, he noted in his …
- … work on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication ( Variation …
- … His primary botanical preoccupation in 1864 was climbing plants. He had become interested in …
- … and to his developing research on the origin of climbing plants. In early February, he wrote: ‘I can …
- … surprised by the length and content of the paper ‘On the movements and habits of climbing plants’ ( …
- … view that rock-basins had primarily been formed by gradual movements of upheaval and subsidence. …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 16 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
- … write briefly’ ( letter to John Scott, 31 May [1863] ), and in a letter of 23 [June 1863] he …
- … Darwin did continue his botanical pursuits over the summer, and persevered with his work on …
- … Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, where he underwent a course of the water-cure. The treatment was not …
- … books by his friends Charles Lyell, the respected geologist, and Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist …
- … ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863] ). Plants and more plants Phyllotaxy …
- … impetus for Darwin to continue the work on dimorphic plants, and on cross and hybrid sterility, that …
- … Hooker, 29 May [1863] ). The new hothouse: tropical plants Darwin continued his own …
- … hothouse in February; this enabled him to grow more tropical plants than before (see …
- … the same species crossing with one another in a variety of plants. With additional study of …
- … on orchids, melastomas, and other tropical and sub-tropical plants with observers from warmer parts …
- … filled Darwin with pleasure. After describing a bee’s movements in relation to the pollinia, …
- … lobata in his study to watch the spontaneous gyratory movements of its tendrils ( see letter to J …
- … D. Hooker, [21 July 1863] ). Gray had noticed more tendril movements and supplied additional …
- … colleagues’ lack of knowledge about these types of plant movements: ‘What are Hooker & Oliver …
- … fruitful in your hands’. Darwin was considering the movements as adaptations for climbing, …
John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 14 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) …
- … specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science. He was the grandson of John …
- … Murray Archive was acquired by the National Library of Scotland : it contains more than two …
- … at Cambridge University Library a similar number of letters from John Murray and Robert Cooke, …
- … he was busy for several years thereafter writing articles and books drawn from his notes. The most …
- … the Journal of researches, which had, as Journal and remarks , formed the third volume of the …
- … , 875 ). It was published in Murray’s Home and Colonial Library in three monthly parts (July to …
- … Thus began the business relationship between Charles Darwin and John Murray. Darwin’s next …
- … Darwin now began work on The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation ) …
- … of 1874, Darwin offered Murray a new book, Insectivorous plants ( Letter 9758 ) ; Murray …
- … Meanwhile Murray also published the second edition of The movements and habits of climbing plants …
- … This edition of 1500 sold more slowly than Insectivorous plants , but even so only 130 were left …
- … following year about The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (Forms of …
- … Darwin returned to botany with The power of movement in plants (Movement in plants), which he …
Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments
Summary
The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…
Matches: 13 hits
- … the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and plants …
- … theory continued to be discussed in both scholarly and popular publications. A lengthy discussion …
- … written by a supporter of his, the artist Samuel Butler, and, according to Butler, the bishop of …
- … to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend of Darwin’s and prominent supporter of (though not a convert to) …
- … 1831 to 1836 voyage, committed suicide at the end of April; and William Jackson Hooker, director of …
- … [1865] ). Darwin was ready to submit his paper on climbing plants to the Linnean Society of London, …
- … book was not published until January 1868. 'Climbing plants' As was usual …
- … great one. In January he expected his manuscript on climbing plants back from the copyist (whose …
- … April 1865 ; Darwin noted at the beginning of ‘Climbing plants’ that he had been led to the subject …
- … author (Freeman 1978). The publication of ‘Climbing plants’ led to a small collaborative …
- … submitted to Darwin a wealth of observations on climbing plants in Destêrro, excerpts from which …
- … and made alterations to the second edition of Climbing plants reflecting Müller’s findings. …
- … undimmed: Frances, writing to Darwin to notify him of their movements, wrote on Hooker’s behalf, ‘He …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 18 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
- … a few odd entries, the record ends. Both notebooks consist of two different sections, headed ‘Books …
- … by the manuscript number being preceded by an asterisk (*119 and *128). For clarity, the …
- … such as the publisher or series in which it was included, and often he listed the libraries which he …
- … Dutrochet mems. sur les veget. et anim: on sleep & movements of plants £ 1 ..s 4. …
- … with profound care abortive organs produced in domesticated plants what function has ceased to be …
- … Ferrie 1838]. H. C. Watson on Geog. distrib: of Brit: plants [H. C. Watson 1835] read …
- … maps by Copenhagen Botanists [?Schouw 1823] of range of plants. 13 Books quoted by Herbert …
- … Britann: [Sweet 1826]— has remarks on acclimatizing of plants. Herbert [Herbert 1837] p. 348 …
- … in a metaphys. point of view Henslow has list of plants of Mauritius with locality in wh. …
- … [Bolton 1794–6]— Yarrell probably has it. account of habits of birds. Temminck Manuel D …
- … 1832] Boltons Harmonia Ruralis [Bolton 1794–6]. Habits of Birds Yarrell has.?— Ramond …
- … Ornithological biography; or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of …
- … 1835. Cage birds: their natural history, management, habits, food, diseases, treatment, …
- … colony of Hong Kong, and remarks on the character and habits of the Chinese, from notes of …
- … on most of the Highland sports, and notices of the habits of the different creatures of game and …
- … 1847. Illustrations of instinct deduced from the habits of British animals . London. 119: …
- … James. 1860. The honey-bee; its natural history, habits, anatomy, and microscopical beauties. …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 18 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing …
- … else to do. He had finished his book on earthworms in April and was filled with foreboding that he …
- … again to write on general & difficult points in the theory of Evolution’, he told the …
- … as the sweetest place on this earth’. From the start of the year, Darwin had his demise on his mind. …
- … A second grandchild was born in December. Old friends and new admirers got in touch, and, for all …
- … that Ernst Krause had used Butler’s book Evolution old and new when revising his essay on …
- … his accusations in Unconscious memory in November 1880 and in an abusive letter about Darwin in …
- … matter’. The positive reception of Movement in plants was another source of pleasure in …
- … 1881 ). Unlike Darwin’s other books, Movement in plants did not generate a large correspondence …
- … Fritz Müller to send observations from Brazil on the movements of leaves that were so original that …
- … Darwin was ‘wholly rewriting’ his first chapter on habits, which he thought would show that worms …
- … & the end of every book is humbug.’ Protoplasm and plants The prospect of the …
- … you may remember that I described in “Insectivorous plants” a really curious phenomenon which I …
- … though it is astonishing to me that anyone could watch the movements & doubt its nature. But …
- … of Drosera . From August, Darwin tried a variety of plants and reagents, telling Francis on 17 …
- … explanation’, Darwin wrote to nurserymen for seeds of plants exhibiting this phenomenon and …
- … Melastomataceae, Darwin had difficulty in obtaining mature plants. On 12 April, he reported to …
- … through the action of worms: with observations on their habits was published in October. As ever, …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 9 hits
- … The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, seeing the publication of his …
- … , ‘Good God how glad I shall be when I can drive the whole of the confounded book out of my head’. …
- … lively debate centred on Darwin’s evolutionary account of the ‘higher’ faculties of human nature: …
- … many of the topics, such as the evolution of mind, language, and morality, had been long-running …
- … He had briefly mentioned sexual selection in Origin , and had increasing come to regard it as …
- … persuadest me to have been “a hairy quadruped, of arboreal habits, furnished with a tail and pointed …
- … of weeping and the production of tears during spasmodic movements of the eye-muscles, apologising …
- … an assumption, for he had intended his theory to apply to plants as well as animals. He remarked, …
- … of Drosera rotundifolia as part of his research on the habits and physiology of insectivorous …
Getting to know Darwin's science
Summary
One of the most exciting aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the opportunity it gives to researchers to ‘get to know’ Darwin as an individual. The letters not only reveal the scientific processes behind Darwin’s publications, they give insight…
Matches: 10 hits
- … One of the most exciting aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the opportunity it gives to …
- … they give insight into his personal life–the world of his family, his circle of friends and his …
- … called “Getting to Know Darwin.” The class, conceived of and taught by William (Ned) Friedman, …
- … Project on Vimeo . The experiences and resources from the course have been carefully …
- … Each module features a theme from Darwin’s research and life. In every module you will find: …
- … 4. discussion questions 5. examples and suggestions for classroom activities. Each …
- … selected chapters from On the Origin of Species (1859) and several of Darwin’s other published …
- … each topic in the context of Darwin’s correspondence, and then recreated some of the very …
- … to the evolution of instinct and the mind, to the power of movements in plants, to his home and …
- … arsenal: for example, when observing the action of climbing plants students used time-elapse …
Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, reprinted in 1861. I Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted…
Matches: 21 hits
- … Atlantic Monthly for July , August , and October , 1860, reprinted in 1861. I …
- … to a long-accepted theory, just as we cling to an old suit of clothes. A new theory, like a new pair …
- … can be found with the article, it oppresses with a sense of general discomfort. New notions and new …
- … enough to warrant cremation—even the great pioneer of inductive research; although, when we had …
- … had nothing to unlearn. Such being our habitual state of mind, it may well be believed that …
- … Investigations about the succession of species in time, and their actual geographical distribution …
- … dim as our conception must needs be as to what such oracular and grandiloquent phrases might really …
- … time of trouble, we still hoped that, with some repairs and makeshifts, the old views might last out …
- … theory is promulgated. We took it up, like our neighbors, and, as was natural, in a somewhat …
- … on the same area, the more they diverge in structure, habits, and constitution’ (a principle which, …
- … however it may have been with the lower animals and with plants. No doubt, the full …
- … cells of an organism are to the higher sorts of animals and plants—the mind of such an age cannot be …
- … It will raise the question, how the diverse sorts of plants and animals came to be as they are and …
- … back to the origin and can affirm that the present forms of plants and animals are the primordial, …
- … facts that all species vary more or less; that domesticated plants and animals, being in conditions …
- … we call species. So long as the existing species of plants and animals were thought to have …
- … lower species of animals, and probably of a larger number of plants, to the same drift period. All …
- … descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.’ …
- … namely, that the geological succession of animals and plants appears to correspond in a general way …
- … in the lowest forms of both, a common faculty of effecting movements tending to a determinate end, …
- … the orderly and special results accomplished, the why the movements are in this or that particular …