From A. S. Wilson 21 February 1878
Summary
On crossing Aegilops.
| Author: | Alexander Stephen Wilson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 21 Feb 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 111 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11370 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … On crossing Aegilops . …
From Robert Trail 5 April 1867
Summary
Reports on an experiment in crossing potato varieties.
| Author: | Robert Trail |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 Apr 1867 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 175 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5490 |
From James Torbitt 18 September 1879
Summary
Illness of his wife.
Potato crossing experiments; believes he has increased yield considerably.
| Author: | James Torbitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Sept 1879 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 154 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12233 |
From James Torbitt 22 April 1876
Summary
Thanks for CD’s assistance and his advice on crossing.
| Author: | James Torbitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Apr 1876 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 135 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10466 |
From G. W. Child 16 February [1870]
Summary
Criticises chapter on good effect of crossing in Variation: (1) does not accept that inbreeding alone results in degeneracy; (2) good effects of crossing exaggerated; (3) denies deleterious effects of close marriage in humans.
| Author: | Gilbert William Child |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Feb [1870] |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 142 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6617 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Criticises chapter on good effect of crossing in Variation : (1) does not accept that …
- … results in degeneracy; (2) good effects of crossing exaggerated; (3) denies deleterious …
- … read your chapter on the good effects of crossing since I received your note of Jany 27— …
- … The positive evidence of improvement by crossing produces much more effect on my mind than …
From C. V. Naudin 6 December 1864
Summary
Congratulates CD on the Copley Medal.
Directs CD to his short memoir on crossing ["De l’hybridité", C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. 59 (1864): 837–45].
| Author: | Charles Victor Naudin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Dec 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 172: 7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4703 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Medal. Directs CD to his short memoir on crossing ["De l’hybridité", C. R. Hebd. Acad. …
- … some cases of variability caused by crossing, which seem to me quite remarkable. Perhaps …
- … paper describes variations that resulted from crossing experiments in species of Datura , …
- … formation, and had carried out extensive crossing experiments in the botanic garden of the …
- … however, of some aspects of Naudin’s crossing experiments (see Correspondence vol. 10, …
From Richard Trevor Clarke [April? 1863]
Summary
Encloses strawberry blossoms used in his crossing experiments.
| Author: | Richard Trevor Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [Apr? 1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 164 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4070 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Encloses strawberry blossoms used in his crossing experiments. …
From William Masters 8 May 1860
Summary
Observations on hybrids from crossed cabbage varieties.
| Author: | William Masters |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 May 1860 |
| Classmark: | DAR 76 (ser. 2): 166–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2792 |
From William Yarrell [c. 17 December 1838]
Summary
Extract of a letter from Sir Robert Heron to WY, copied for CD, about the crossing of solid- and divided-hoofed pigs, and Angora rabbits of different colours.
| Author: | William Yarrell |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. 17 Dec 1838] |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.7: 287 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-457 |
From C. W. Crocker 24 November 1862
Summary
Answers on Begonia.
Snapdragon crossing experiments.
Thanks for offer of plants.
| Author: | Charles William Crocker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 24 Nov 1862 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 259 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3824 |
From Richard Sutton Ford 6 May 1839
Summary
Answers to [Questions about breeding].
| Author: | Richard Sutton Ford |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 May 1839 |
| Classmark: | DAR 186: 44 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-509 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … the Breeding of Animals”. Q y . 1 In crossing varieties of cattle & sheep, I have observed …
- … inconstancy has often attended subsequent crossings between this progeny and either of the …
- … of the cross exclusively. Q y . 4. In crossing between an old established variety, and a …
- … I may instance the effect produced by crossing our variously bred mares with an Arabian …
- … animals are extremely capricious. In crossing a black-sided, long-horned cow, with a red …
From Gaston de Saporta 16 December 1877
Summary
He has heard CD is about to be elected to the Académie des Sciences.
Cross and self-fertilisation, with its emphasis on insect pollination, helps explain the problem he has worked on for so long: i.e., the rapid diversification of angiosperms in the fossil record occurs in conjunction with the diversification of insects.
| Author: | Louis Charles Joseph Gaston (Gaston) de Saporta, comte de Saporta |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Dec 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 34 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11281 |
Matches: 11 hits
- … in fertilisation together with the necessity of crossing explains everything: the earlier …
- … to individual and flower to flower crossings depend on the role of insects could not to …
- … until the moment when the effects of crossing and of the new mode of fertilisation made …
- … develop and perfect themselves, thanks to crossing, except under the influence of insects, …
- … sexual organs so as to perform a sort of crossing in the interior of the same flower, at …
- … but a secondary deviation. I understand that crossing that is not strictly necessary for …
- … and augmenting its power; but the role of crossing, especially of that which operates from …
- … together with dimorphism, the role of this crossing must above all consist of engendering …
- … before the existence of this method of crossing the vegetable kingdom should remain for a …
- … to what has followed; but the method of crossing by insects going from one plant to the …
- … itself. The most simple methods of crossing had to suffice at the origin and those of …
From Thomas Laxton 2 May 1876
Summary
Responds to CD’s query as to the duration of crossed varieties of peas. [See Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 305.]
| Author: | Thomas Laxton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 May 1876 |
| Classmark: | DAR 77: 159–63 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10491 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … different varieties, the results of crossing— In the first place I hold that the natural …
- … are all either the result of continued selection or crossing in that direction, and …
- … therefore all varieties raised by crossing a normally vigorous & tall variety with a dwarf …
- … those varieties only which are raised from crossing tall and normally vigorous sorts, and, …
- … 12 generations, for although I commenced crossing the pea about 20 years ago, I have not …
From Bernard Peirce Brent 23 October 1857
Summary
Discusses the difficulties of breeding mules by crossing canaries and finches.
| Author: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Oct 1857 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 299 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2158 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Discusses the difficulties of breeding mules by crossing canaries and finches. …
From Edward Blyth [after 3 February 1868]
Summary
Recommends J. Scott’s paper on crossing varieties of Verbascum.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 3 Feb 1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 210 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5750 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Recommends J. Scott’s paper on crossing varieties of Verbascum . …
From James Torbitt 16 September 1878
Summary
Apologises for his error over the Solanum.
Thanks CD for his good wishes; JT believes he will increase yield and disease-resistance by his crossing and selection.
| Author: | James Torbitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 16 Sept 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 147 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11696 |
From James Torbitt 6 March 1878
Summary
Problems of continuing with his crossing experiments; financial help from CD.
| Author: | James Torbitt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Mar 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 138 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11403 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Problems of continuing with his crossing experiments; financial help from CD. …
From J. S. Bowerbank [4 November 1867]
Summary
Reports two observations on crossing in dogs: the preservation of both pure types in the offspring of a pointer and a setter, and the influence of a first mating with a mongrel on the progeny of a Barbary bitch and a subsequent Barbary male.
| Author: | James Scott Bowerbank |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [4 Nov 1867] |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 261 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13780 |
From Charles William Crocker 1[–4] May 1863
Summary
Observes Plantago’s out-crossing mechanism.
Observations of style lengths of primroses and cowslips.
| Author: | Charles William Crocker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1[–4] May 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 110: 28, DAR 161: 260 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4135 |
From W. D. Fox [c. November 1838]
Summary
Reports on the effects of inbreeding in dogs and the results of crossing Canada and common geese.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [c. Nov 1838] |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 173 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-418 |
| letter | (313) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (25) |
| Torbitt, James | (19) |
| Scott, John | (18) |
| Müller, Fritz | (10) |
| Anderson Henry, Isaac | (9) |
| 1832 | (1) |
| 1838 | (2) |
| 1839 | (4) |
| 1845 | (1) |
| 1850 | (1) |
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| 1854 | (1) |
| 1855 | (5) |
| 1856 | (9) |
| 1857 | (7) |
| 1858 | (5) |
| 1859 | (3) |
| 1860 | (10) |
| 1861 | (4) |
| 1862 | (25) |
| 1863 | (32) |
| 1864 | (10) |
| 1865 | (15) |
| 1866 | (10) |
| 1867 | (17) |
| 1868 | (20) |
| 1869 | (11) |
| 1870 | (1) |
| 1871 | (7) |
| 1872 | (12) |
| 1873 | (9) |
| 1874 | (4) |
| 1875 | (4) |
| 1876 | (15) |
| 1877 | (20) |
| 1878 | (12) |
| 1879 | (14) |
| 1880 | (13) |
| 1881 | (5) |
| 1882 | (3) |
Darwin's 1876 letters online
Summary
Birth, tragic death . . . and cardigan jackets. To mark the 211th anniversary of Darwin's birth, we have released online the transcripts and footnotes of over 460 letters written to and from him in 1876 and a supplement of 180 letters written before…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I am now getting ready a book on the advantages of crossing, which will be a sort of complement to …
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: 6 hits
- … him to carry out tasks like counting seeds of Lythrum , crossing cowslips with polyanthuses, and …
- … a full conviction of the change of species is.’ Crossing experiments In addition to …
- … Continuing from these earlier studies, in 1864 he conducted crossing experiments between different …
- … other papers of Scott’s followed, reporting the results of crossing experiments on different species …
- … years, Darwin consulted Charles William Crocker about his crossing experiments with hollyhocks, and …
- … and Friedrich Hildebrand in Germany compared results of crossing experiments with a Pulmonaria …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 9 hits
- … to James Moggridge to ask him to observe whether spontaneous crossing of different varieties of this …
- … I got fresh plants, & consequently took up the effect of crossing & self-fertilising plants …
- … in Florence kept varieties of sweet peas separated to avoid crossing ( From Federico Delpino, 18 …
- … native Mediterranean setting. Although he continued his crossing experiments through the early …
- … what great vigour is given to seedling plants by the crossing of their parents’ ( To Fritz Müller, …
- … & have strength to complete it) will be on the advantages of Crossing Plants, & this will …
- … Meehan had been a vocal opponent of Darwin’s views on crossing, and his paper, ‘Are insects any …
- … press observations continued for 10 years on the effects of crossing plants, & I think that …
- … inferred from observations on self fertilising plants that crossing was of little importance …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … whether hybrid sterility was the inevitable result of crossing species. Thomas Huxley had stated …
- … stigmas ’. Darwin had hoped to publish the results of the crossing experiments immediately, but by …
- … 1863, when Lythrum was flowering, Darwin resumed his crossing experiments. He also wrote to …
- … of the various crosses. For this, he turned to his earlier crossing experiments, which included some …
- … adding this work to his book on ‘the good effects of crossing’ ( Cross and self fertilisation ), …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … conclusion in my speculations on the origin of species, that crossing played an important part in …
1877 letters now online
Summary
Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. The transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters written to and from Darwin in 1877 are now online. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877…
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 3 hits
- … was only one of many adaptations that had evolved to promote crossing between individuals of the …
- … males and females of unisexual animals. Through extensive crossing experiments, and painstaking …
- … a number of other structures and behaviours that facilitated crossing, especially with the aid of …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 4 hits
- … the text. Orchids , which concentrated on the ‘means of crossing’, was seen by Darwin as the …
- … , which provided evidence for the ‘advantages of crossing’ (letter to Asa Gray, 28 January 1876). …
- … before a disease-free variety of potato had been produced by crossing the most pest-free varieties …
- … self-fertilisation To demonstrate the advantages of crossing, Darwin presented the results …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the possibility of all organic beings occasionally crossing, & on the remarkable …
Floral Dimorphism
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Floral studies In 1877 Darwin published a book that included a series of smaller studies on botanical subjects. Titled The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, it consisted primarily of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … out of the meaning of heterostyled flowers. The results of crossing such flowers in an illegitimate …
Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
Summary
The most forceful and persistent critic of the term ‘natural selection’ was the co-discoverer of the process itself, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace seized on Herbert Spencer’s term ‘survival of the fittest’, explicitly introduced as an alternative way of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … his own copy of the first edition of Origin neatly crossing through every occurrence of ‘natural …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to the action of external conditions, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 3 hits
- … or the Principles of Variation, Inheritance, Reversion, Crossing, Interbreeding, and Selection under …
- … on dimorphism and trimorphism and reported on a series of crossing experiments with orchids. Darwin …
- … [1867] ). Darwin was also interested in experiments crossing different species of orchids …
Darwin and Down
Summary
Charles and Emma Darwin, with their first two children, settled at Down House in the village of Down (later ‘Downe’) in Kent, as a young family in 1842. The house came with eighteen acres of land, and a fifteen acre meadow. The village combined the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to study fertilisation (in particular the effects of crossing and of self-fertilisation); …
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: 5 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix VI). In addition to crossing varieties of Primula in 1863, he …
- … the two men discussed a multitude of botanical subjects, the crossing experiments that Scott had …
- … and he continued to observe individuals of the same species crossing with one another in a variety …
- … particularly when he was working on the chapter he called ‘Crossing & Sterility’ (see …
- … discussions, completing three sections, on inheritance, crossing and sterility, and selection, by …
Darwin on childhood
Summary
On his engagement to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1838, Darwin wrote down his recollections of his early childhood. Life. Written August–– 1838 My earliest recollection, the date of which I can approximately tell, and which must have been before…
Matches: 1 hits
- … effect, on my memory.–– I remember, when going there crossing in the carriage a broad ford, & …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online
Summary
To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…
Matches: 1 hits
- … fertilisation , summing up many years of experiments on crossing plants. I wd gladly …
Darwin’s earthquakes
Summary
Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … he collected. Travelling on from South America and crossing back half way round the world, …
