To Asa Gray 23 [January 1861]
Summary
Is glad AG will publish [pamphlet of his reviews of Origin]. Insists on bearing the costs. Encloses list of institutions and individuals to whom he would send copies.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 23 [Jan 1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (12) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3050 |
To Asa Gray 17 February [1861]
Summary
Distribution of AG’s pamphlet.
Insectivorous plants.
Informs AG of his [CD’s] notice on Pumilio in Gardeners’ Chronicle [5 Jan 1861; Collected papers 2: 36–8].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 17 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (54) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3064 |
To Asa Gray 26–7 February [1861]
Summary
Believes AG’s pamphlet will do natural selection "right good service".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 26–7 Feb [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (57a) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3073 |
To Asa Gray 12 March [1861]
Summary
Has received Chauncey Wright’s article.
Reports on favourable response to AG’s pamphlet.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 12 Mar [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (52) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3087 |
To Asa Gray 11 April [1861]
Summary
Huxley and CD fear Chauncey Wright’s review is too general.
Reports the praise for AG’s pamphlet.
J. S. Henslow is dying.
Francis Bowen strikes CD as weak and unobservant; presumes he is a metaphysician, which accounts for his "entire want of common sense".
Does wild Apocynum catch flies in U. S.?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 11 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (53) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3115 |
To Asa Gray 5 June [1861]
Summary
AG’s review of John Phillips’ book [Life on earth (1860), in Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 31 (1861): 444–9].
Thinks his experiments will explain Primula dimorphism.
Insect fertilisation of orchids.
Wishes that the "greatest curse on Earth", slavery, were abolished.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 5 June [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (60) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3176 |
To Asa Gray 21 July [1861]
Summary
Is writing his paper on orchids.
Is surprised that AG gets little or no response with Drosera.
Describes the two forms of Primula and asks whether AG knows any analogous cases of dimorphism.
Reports that John Stuart Mill approves of CD’s scientific method.
Discusses American politics.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 21 July [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (61) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3216 |
To Asa Gray 16 September [1861]
Summary
Is interested in cases of dimorphism like Primula. Discusses Primula and Linum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 16 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (73) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3255 |
To Asa Gray 17 September [1861]
Summary
U. S. politics and relations with England.
Wants examples of dimorphism similar to Primula.
Structure and function of Spiranthes flower.
Observations and experiments on Drosera.
CD’s views on design.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 17 Sept [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (72) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3256 |
To Asa Gray [after 11 October 1861]
Summary
Thanks AG for notes on hollies.
Replies to an argument for design. Feels it monstrous to consider orchids created as they are now seen, since every part reveals modification on modification.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | [after 11 Oct 1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (51a) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3283 |
To Asa Gray 11 December [1861]
Summary
Discusses the worsening relations between their two countries and the possibility of war.
Expects Orchids and his Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63] to be out soon.
Thanks AG for some facts on dimorphism.
George Bentham has given him a list of Oxalis and Mentha species that are dimorphic like Primula.
Is in a "thick mud" regarding design in nature.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 11 Dec [1861] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (62) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3342 |