From Daniel Oliver 12 March 1877
Summary
Discusses the cleistogamous flowers of Oxalis. Thinks they may not be truly cleistogamous but merely arrested or imperfectly developed normal flowers.
| Author: | Daniel Oliver |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 Mar 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 173: 35 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10890 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 10, letter to Daniel Oliver, 20 [April 1862] , and Correspondence vol. …
- … letter to Daniel Oliver, 10 March 1877 . CD described the cleistogamic flowers (permanently closed flowers adapted for self-fertilisation) of Oxalis sensitiva (a synonym of Biophytum sensitivum ) and O. acetosella (wood sorrel) in Forms of flowers , pp. 321–4. CD had previously corresponded with Oliver about Oxalis acetosella in 1862 …
To G. H. K. Thwaites 26 March 1877
Summary
Thanks for specimens [of insects].
Wonders whether difference between male and female plays part in fertilisation of fig.
Flowers of Oxalis sensitiva, sent long ago, are trimorphic and cleistogamic.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | George Henry Kendrick Thwaites |
| Date: | 26 Mar 1877 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.508) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10913 |
From Friedrich Hildebrand 18 January 1877
Summary
Praise for Cross and self-fertilisation: most important point proved is benefit of crossing between related individuals grown under different conditions. This explains adaptive value of dispersal mechanisms.
| Author: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 18 Jan 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 215 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10803 |
From Adam Fitch 20 July 1877
Summary
Queries about cauliflowers.
| Author: | Adam Fitch |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 July 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 128 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11063 |
From W. E. Darwin [25 March? 1877]
Summary
Staying with W. D. Fox on the Isle of Wight. Offers to find Pulmonaria plants.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [25 Mar? 1877] |
| Classmark: | Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 67) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10922F |
Matches: 2 hits
- … botanical observations in 1862 (see Correspondence vol. 24, Supplement, letter from W. E. …
- … 1862] ). The ‘sisters’ were probably Fox’s youngest daughters, Theodora, Gertrude Mary, and Edith Darwin Fox ; Reginald Henry and Gilbert Basil Fox were his youngest sons. The friends have not been identified. Sandown and Shanklin are neighbouring seaside towns on the east coast of the Isle of Wight. CD went on holiday to both these places with William and the rest of the Darwin family in 1858; see Correspondence vol. 7, letter …
From John Murray 29 November [1877]
Summary
Answers CD’s query about payment made to him [for Descent and Forms of flowers] and explains the basis on which it was made. Because of CD’s wish to be paid before editions are sold off, profits must be estimated. If he were willing to accept annual statements of sales, payments based on them, and final accounting when all were sold, there would be no uncertainty. This is JM’s usual practice.
| Author: | John Murray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Nov [1877] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 497, DAR 210.11: 12 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11259 |
From Thomas Howie 20 April 1877
Summary
Offers key to CD’s theory: fern roots are like little grubs.
Claims to have crossed the Australian Alps where Dr Müller [Ferdinand von Mueller?] failed.
| Author: | Thomas Howie |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 276 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10934 |
To J. B. Innes 5 October 1877
Summary
CD’s opinion of a specimen sent by JBI from an unknown tree, and the Ross-shire tale about it.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Brodie Innes |
| Date: | 5 Oct 1877 |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11168 |
To Asa Gray 18 February [1877]
Summary
Praises AG’s abstract of Cross and self-fertilisation [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 13 (1877): 125–41].
Hopes soon to finish with dimorphic plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 18 Feb [1877] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (122) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10851 |
To ? 24 June [1877]
Summary
Advises correspondent on adopting a career; "each person shd. follow his natural bent & improve his special abilities".
Strongly recommends study of J. S. Mill’s Logic.
His own zeal for science was most stimulated by Herschel’s Introduction to the study of natural philosophy.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Unidentified |
| Date: | 24 June [1877] |
| Classmark: | Sotheby’s (dealers) (25 July 1972); Kobunso (dealer) (1974) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11014 |
From A. A. van Bemmelen and H. J. Veth 6 February 1877
Summary
A letter from CD’s admirers in the Netherlands, sent with an album of their photographs, in celebration of his sixty-eighth birthday.
Presents an account of early efforts in the Netherlands in the direction of developmental theories, and evidence of the support and enthusiastic reception given CD’s theory.
| Author: | Adriaan Anthoni van Bemmelen; Huibert Johannes Veth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Feb 1877 |
| Classmark: | English Heritage, Down House (EH 88202653) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10831 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … vol. 11, letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863] ). Harting 1862–74 . On Harting’s …
- … 1862 ), part 3, book 5, chapter 5: ‘Chacun rêve l’inconnu et l’impossible selon sa nature’ (everyone dreams the unknown and the impossible according to their nature). On Lyell’s visit to Utrecht and his discussions about evolution with Harting, see Bulhof 1974 , p. 278. Lyell, together with Joseph Dalton Hooker , had communicated the joint paper by CD and Alfred Russel Wallace to the Linnean Society on 1 July 1858 (C. Darwin and Wallace 1858; see Correspondence vol. 7, letter …
From J. D. Hooker 7 November 1877
Summary
Sent rare cycad seeds for CD’s cotyledon study.
Welwitschia seed germinated at Kew had ordinary cotyledons. JDH thinks mature Welwitschia leaves are original cotyledons.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Nov 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 104: 97–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11227 |
To J. D. Hooker 6 November [1877]
Summary
Requests seeds for study of movement in cotyledons. Would love to study Welwitschia cotyledons.
Son William is to be married 28 November.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 6 Nov [1877] |
| Classmark: | DAR 95: 459–60 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11226 |
From Lawson Tait 25 February 1877
Summary
Wants to know how to obtain The thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, mentioned in Descent [1: 106].
| Author: | Robert Lawson (Lawson) Tait |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Feb 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 178: 38 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10868 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1862 : ‘The prime principle then in man’s constitution is the social. ’ The title of the work by Marcus Aurelius is usually translated as Meditations . The article by Tait has not been found; he had recently written on the evolution of morality ( L. Tait 1876 ; see Correspondence vol. 24, letter …
To Gaston de Saporta 24 December 1877
Summary
Such honours as proposal for election to Institut affect CD very little.
GdeS’s idea that dicotyledonous plants were not developed until sucking insects evolved is a splendid one. The suggestion that fertilisation of the surviving members of the most ancient dicotyledons should be studied is a good one. CD hopes GdeS will keep it in mind.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Louis Charles Joseph Gaston (Gaston) de Saporta, comte de Saporta |
| Date: | 24 Dec 1877 |
| Classmark: | Archives Gaston de Saporta (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11287 |
From Alphonse de Candolle 14 August 1877
Summary
Thanks for Francis Darwin’s Dipsacus paper.
Dislikes the word "protoplasm", because improved microscopes will uncover more fundamental substances. Also "plasma" merely hides the ignorance of modern chemists.
Expects waxy, glaucous-leaved plants to be most frequent in dry temperate climates.
| Author: | Alphonse de Candolle |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Aug 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 22 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11106 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to CD of [after 12 July 1877] . Leguminosae (a synonym of Fabaceae): the family of peas and beans; Crassulaceae: stonecrop or orpine; Ficoidae (a former name for Aizoaceae): fig-marigold or iceplant; Cactaceae: cactus; Rosaceae: rose, apple, plum; Gramineae (a synonym of Poaceae): grasses. Myricaceae: the family of wax-myrtle; Euphorbiaceae: spurge or euphorbias. In Bentham and Hooker 1862 – …
To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 31 August [1877]
Summary
Discusses plants to be sent to Kew.
Thanks for letter about Trifolium
and for R. I. Lynch’s observations on sleep of Erythrina.
Mentions letter from F. J. Cohn, dealing with discovery by Francis Darwin, that CD has had printed in Nature ["The contractile filaments of the teasel", Nature 16 (1877): 339; Collected papers 2: 205–7].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | 31 Aug [1877] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Darwin: Letters to Thiselton-Dyer, 1873–81: ff. 89–91) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11122 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to Nature , 15 August [1877] and nn. 2 and 3). Francis’s paper had been read at the Royal Society of London , but only an abstract had been published by the society ( F. Darwin 1877a ). Joseph Dalton Hooker was away on a three-month-long botanical trip in America (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 2: 204–17). Thiselton-Dyer had assisted with the English translation of Julius Sachs’s Text-book of botany ( Sachs 1875 ). In Bentham and Hooker 1862 – …
| letter | (17) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Bemmelen, A. A. van | (1) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
| Fitch, Adam | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Innes, J. B. | (1) |
| Saporta, Gaston de | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (17) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Bemmelen, A. A. van | (1) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
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…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
I beg a million pardons: To John Lubbock, [3 September 1862]
Summary
Alison Pearn looks at a letter Darwin wrote to his neighbour and friend, John Lubbock, after making a mistake in his research on bees in 1862.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Alison Pearn looks at a letter Darwin wrote to his neighbour and friend, …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific …
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
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Floral studies In 1877 …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
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: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
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: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
Orchids
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A project to follow On the Origin of Species Darwin began to observe English orchids and collect specimens from abroad in the years immediately following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Examining…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment A project to follow On the Origin …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
Dining at Down House
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's Domestic Life While Darwin is best remembered for his scientific accomplishments, he greatly valued and was strongly influenced by his domestic life. Darwin's…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
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: 1 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species , published in 1877, …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
