To J. D. Hooker [after 26] November [1862]
Summary
Discusses differences between Asa Gray’s view and his own on crossing. A common effect is the obliteration of incipient varieties. There is heavy evidence against new characters arising from crossing wild forms, "only intermediate races are then produced". Innate vital forces are somehow led to act differently as a result of direct effect of physical conditions. Astonished by JDH’s statement that every difference might have occurred without selection. CD agrees, but JDH’s manner of putting it astonished him. CD says, "think of each of a thousand seeds bringing forth its plant, and then each a thousand … I cannot even grapple with idea". Responds to JDH’s and Lyell’s feeling that he made too much of a deus ex machina out of natural selection. [Letter actually dated 20 Nov but is certainly after 3831.] [wrong field?]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [after 26] Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 172 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3834 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … between Asa Gray’s view and his own on crossing. A common effect is the obliteration of …
- … evidence against new characters arising from crossing wild forms, "only intermediate races …
- … what I think A. Gray believes about crossing & what I believe. — If 1000 pigeons were …
- … This I believe is common effect of crossing, viz the obliteration of incipient varieties. …
- … varieties have been produced; their crossing will produce a third or more intermediate …
- … with strong tendency to vary, the act of crossing tends to give rise to new characters; & …
- … evidence against new characters arising from crossing wild forms; only intermediate races …
- … sports”): these eliminate all effect of crossing. — Pray remember how much I value your …
To John Scott 19 December [1862]
Summary
JS should be proud of his paper ["Nature of the fern-spore", Edinburgh New. Philos. J. 2d ser. 16 (1862): 209–27].
CD has just found that JS’s observations on the confluence of two sexes causing variability were independently confirmed by Huxley.
CD has always suspected a fundamental difference between buds and ovules.
Asks for examples of "bud-variation" or "sports".
Asks JS to test germination of pollen on rostellum of Laelia.
Offers JS money for experimental supplies, e.g., netting, to keep insects out of flowers.
Encloses an outline of crossing experiments with Lythraceae, Primula, Pelargonium, and others, which he feels would be valuable.
Note on melastomids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 19 Dec [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B35–6, B64–5, B80 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3868 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … out of flowers. Encloses an outline of crossing experiments with Lythraceae, Primula , …
- … to the possibility of Scott repeating a series of crossing experiments on varieties of the …
- … DAR 76: 40, there are dated notes from CD’s crossing experiments with cabbages in May and …
- … fertilisation , pp. 98–103. CD refers to the crossing experiments, begun in May 1862, …
- … 4–9, 12–13. In Variation 2: 70, CD described crossing experiments on peloric flowers of …
- … In the summer of 1862, CD made extensive crossing experiments with the trimorphic plant, …
- … in DAR 205.8: 45–7, 49–53, 56. He began crossing experiments on Monochaetum ensiferum in …
To P. L. Sclater 14 May [1862]
Summary
Asks for information about peacocks, especially Pavo nigripennis. Suggests a crossing experiment.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
Date: | 14 May [1862] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.277) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3545 |
From C. W. Crocker 24 November 1862
Author: | Charles William Crocker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 24 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 259 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3824 |
To J. D. Hooker 12 [December 1862]
Summary
Maintains his view on crossing. Thinks practical breeders would agree with him; doubts that variability and domestication are at all necessarily correlative.
Identical plants in different conditions a heavy argument against "direct action" [of physical conditions].
His 1000-pigeon case is altered if long-beaked are in least degree sterile with short-beaked.
His work on dimorphism inclines him to believe that sterility is at first a selected quality to keep incipient species distinct.
Case of easy modification of Lythrum pollen to favour or prevent crossing.
Monsters.
Has just finished chapter on variations of cultivated plants.
Edinburgh doctors have sent him Diploma of Medical Society.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 12 [Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 176 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3855 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Maintains his view on crossing. Thinks practical breeders would agree with him; doubts …
- … of Lythrum pollen to favour or prevent crossing. Monsters. Has just finished chapter on …
- … of little variations of the individual. On crossing I cannot change; the more I think, the …
- … you will see how pollen can be modified merely to favour crossing; with equal readiness it …
- … could be modified to prevent crossing. — It is this which makes me so much interested with …
To Asa Gray 1 July [1862]
Summary
Thanks for notes on Cypripedium and Platanthera hookeri, which is really beautiful and quite a new case.
His son, George, has been observing the insect fertilisation of orchids.
CD has been crossing peloric flowers of Pelargonium, but doubts he will get good results with respect to sterility of hybrids.
Rhexia glandulosa does not appear to be dimorphic. Lythrum is trimorphic.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 1 July [1862] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (69) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3634 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … fertilisation of orchids. CD has been crossing peloric flowers of Pelargonium , but doubts …
- … floribundum ), CD began a series of crossing experiments on 1 June 1862 (see the …
- … Lately I have done very little, except some crossing of plants. I have made a great series …
- … 4 (1862): 553–4. CD had begun a series of crossing experiments with the normally sterile …
To Asa Gray 26[–7] November [1862]
Summary
Discusses AG’s article ["Dimorphism", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 419–20]. Does not like the terms "dioecio-dimorphism" or "precocious fertilisation". Discusses the separation of sexes in plants; cannot doubt that hermaphroditism is the aboriginal state.
Discusses AG’s observations on orchids and his review of Orchids [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 138–51].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 26[–7] Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (50) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3830 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … long letter from Hooker on part which crossing plays in Nature; I must consider it well, & …
- … Botanically for I cannot make out that any one has succeeded in crossing them. — I have …
- … with you in your remarks on the part which crossing plays. I was much perplexed by Oliver’ …
- … community of individuals, require more free crossing & therefore have separate sexes? But …
- … Although good is gained by the inevitable crossing of the dimorphic flowers, yet numerous …
To W. E. Darwin 4 [November 1862]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | 4 [Nov 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 105 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3682 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Discusses a crossing experiment. Has been counting the seeds in pods [of Lythrum ? ]. …
To J. D. Hooker 9 February [1862]
Summary
Thanks JDH for box of melastomes
and a very valuable reference from Daniel Oliver.
Is crossing Monochaetum which he thinks is dimorphic.
Is "sometimes half tempted to give up species & stick to experiments".
Pollen of Bletia hyacinthina is quite unlike other Bletia species but exactly the same as Epipactis.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 9 Feb [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 143 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3440 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 8 November 1862]
Summary
Asks whether T. A. Knight’s tall blue and white marrow peas were raised by Knight himself.
Also asks whether anyone who has saved seed peas grown close to other kinds observed that the succeeding crop came up "untrue" or crossed? CD would expect that such crossing would occasionally happen.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 8 Nov 1862] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 8 November 1862, p. 1052 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3798 |
From W. B. Clarke 20 September 1862
Summary
Acknowledges presentation copy of Orchids.
Asks advice on what to do with all his fossils. Sending various specimens.
Author: | William Branwhite Clarke |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Sept 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 175 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3733 |
From Richard Trevor Clarke [after 25 November 1862]
Summary
Replies to CD’s inquiry about cross-breeds of strawberries [Collected papers 2: 70]. Has been crossing for years.
Author: | Richard Trevor Clarke |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [after 25 Nov 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 166 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3829 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … about cross-breeds of strawberries [ Collected papers 2: 70]. Has been crossing for years. …
From J. D. Hooker 26 November 1862
Summary
Returns Asa Gray letter. Gray has made a great blunder in his criticism of Oliver: he mistakes perpetuation of a variety for "propagation of variation". Confusion between "action of physical causes" and "effects of physical causes". Neither crossing nor natural selection has made so many divergent individuals, but simply variation. "If once you hold that natural selection can create a character your whole doctrine tumbles to the ground." CD’s failure to convey this, and the false doctrine that "like produces like" is at bottom of half the scientific infidelity to CD’s doctrine. There is something to the objection that CD has made a deus ex machina of natural selection since he neglects to dwell on the facts of infinite incessant variations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 61–2, 77–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3831 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … and "effects of physical causes". Neither crossing nor natural selection has made so many …
- … that the type is a myth. ) whereas crossing tends to variation by adding differences to …
- … still very strong in holding to impotence of crossing with respect to origin of species— I …
- … You must remember that it is neither crossing nor N. Selection that has made so many …
To J. D. Hooker [21 December 1862]
Summary
Thanks for Begonia and Oxalis.
Keeps obstinate about crossing and could argue till doomsday, but will not bother JDH.
Sees that JDH has finished Welwitschia.
Thinks Huxley’s Working Men’s Lectures excellent.
Has finished Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105],
and abstract of Bates’s paper for Natural History Review,
and has begun to arrange concluding chapters [for Variation]. Is paralysed on how to begin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [21 Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 174 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3871 |
To John Scott 3 December [1862]
Summary
JS’s facts on Primula are new to CD.
In Linum CD has also found dimorphic and non-dimorphic species.
Plans to publish next autumn on successive homomorphic generations in Primula.
"Fluctuating forms" due to culture.
Urges JS to publish.
Lobelia functionally monoecious.
Where did JS publish on Clivia hybrids? Did he count parent and cross seeds, as Gärtner shows is necessary?
CD has done large experiments on artificially fertilised cowslips. They never resemble oxlips.
Would welcome detailed criticism of natural selection by a careful observer like JS. Most criticism worthless. Expects a great deal from Lyell’s reaction.
Suggests JS do orchid experiment to see if rostellum can be penetrated by pollen.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 3 Dec [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B60–3 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3844 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … are in DAR 108: 56–66. CD carried out crossing experiments with Primula sinensis in 1861 ( …
- … in Origin , p. 98. Scott mentioned some crossing experiments that he had carried out with …
- … in Primula ’ , p. 442. CD began his crossing experiments with cowslips and primroses in …
- … 27 April 1862, in DAR 157a, pp. 75–7. CD’s crossing experiments with oxlips, carried out …
To J. D. Hooker 3 November [1862]
Summary
Requests reference to Jules Planchon’s monograph on Linum [Lond. J. Bot. 6 (1847): 588–603; 7 (1848): 165–86, 473–501, 507–28].
Sends list of seeds, including Oxalis, Boraginaceae especially Alkanna.
Asa Gray says JDH wrote reviews of Orchids in Gardeners’ Chronicle.
His experiments amuse him after dull day’s work on vegetables and fruit-trees.
Leschenaultia formosa has exterior stigma, thus eminently requiring insect aid, and thus ensuring crossing almost inevitably.
Asks whether Samuel Haughton at Dublin who made important medical discovery could be the same who reviewed Origin so hostilely [in Nat. Hist. Rev. 7 (1860): 23–32]; if so, he can sneer at and abuse CD to his heart’s content.
Asa Gray as rabid as ever [on Civil War].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 3 Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 171 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3793 |
From John Scott [20 November – 2 December 1862]
Summary
JS does not fully accept natural selection.
Has never raised oxlips from cowslips or primroses; reports of such must be cases of crossing.
Discusses relative fertility of varieties, self-fertility of hybrids, and plans for experiments on enhanced hybrid fertility.
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [20 Nov – 2 Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 79 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3815 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 27 [December 1862]
Summary
CD interested in hybrid sterility and encloses his preliminary MS. Outlines experiments to test for existence of sterility in breeds of poultry and pigeons.
Experiments on dimorphism have led him to change in part his opinion as given in Origin, and he is now asking pigeon and poultry fanciers for any examples of special selective sterility [i.e., a particular pair are sterile when crossed, but each individual is fertile with others] and hopes to investigate its inheritance.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 27 [Dec 1862] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3877 |
To Asa Gray 16 February [1862]
Summary
Floral structure of Melastoma. Asks AG to observe position of pistils in lately-opened flowers of different plants.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 16 Feb [1862] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (63) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3448 |
To Daniel Oliver 8 June [1862]
Summary
Describes floral anatomy of a Catasetum sent by DO.
Has gone on from orchids to studying insect agency in Pelargonium.
His doubts on the worth of publishing Orchids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 8 June [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 32 (EH 88206015) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3592 |
letter | (72) |
Darwin, C. R. | (47) |
Crocker, C. W. | (4) |
Darwin, W. E. | (3) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Clarke, R. T. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (25) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Gray, Asa | (10) |
Oliver, Daniel | (6) |
Scott, John | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | |
Hooker, J. D. | (14) |
Gray, Asa | (11) |
Oliver, Daniel | (7) |
Darwin, W. E. | (5) |
Scott, John | (5) |
Crocker, C. W. | (4) |
Masters, M. T. | (3) |
Bates, H. W. | (2) |
Candolle, Alphonse de | (2) |
Clarke, R. T. | (2) |
Huxley, T. H. | (2) |
Journal of Horticulture | (2) |
Babington, C. C. | (1) |
Bentham, George | (1) |
Clarke, W. B. (b) | (1) |
Fitch, Adam | (1) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (1) |
Harrison, L. C. | (1) |
Lubbock, John | (1) |
Naudin, C. V. | (1) |
Oxenden, G. C. | (1) |
Rolle, Friedrich | (1) |
Sclater, P. L. | (1) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (1) |
Vaughan Williams, M. S. | (1) |
Wedgwood, L. C. | (1) |
Wedgwood, M. S. | (1) |
Wedgwood, Sophy | (1) |
Wooler, W. A. | (1) |
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, …