From J. D. Hooker [c. 3 September 1844]
Summary
Suggests there is a direct relation between temperature and abundance of plant species.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 3 Sept 1844] |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 221 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-774 |
To C. G. Ehrenberg 5 September [1844]
Summary
Has at last received first letter CGE wrote.
More specimens being sent.
Sends his sketch of paper ["Fine dust in the Atlantic Ocean" (1846), Collected papers 1: 199–203].
D’Orbigny considers Pampas clay deposit result of debacle. CD cannot doubt it is slow, estuary deposit. Would be grateful for information on this point.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg |
Date: | 5 Sept [1844] |
Classmark: | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN/HBSB, N005 NL Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Nr. 43) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-775 |
To J. D. Hooker [8 September 1844]
Summary
Acknowledges note and parcel for Ehrenberg.
Considers why different areas have different numbers of species. Gives an example opposing JDH’s view that paucity of species results from vicissitudes of climate. CD has concluded that species are most numerous in areas that have most often been divided, isolated from, and then reunited with, other areas. Cannot give detailed reasons but believes that "isolation is the chief concomitant or cause of the appearance of new forms".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [8 Sept 1844] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 17 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-776 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette [before 14 September 1844]
Summary
Referring to a correspondent who had written about Pelargonium plants whose leaves had become regularly edged with white, CD reports that nearly all the young leaves of box-trees he had planted have become symmetrically tipped with white. Though these facts seem trivial, CD believes the first appearance of any peculiarity which tends to become hereditary deserves being recorded.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 14 Sept 1844] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 37, 14 September 1844, pp. 621 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-777 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette [before 14 September 1844]
Summary
Asks whether salt and carbonate of lime (in the form of seashells) would act upon each other if slightly moistened and left in great quantities together. The question occurs from CD’s having found in Peru a great bed of recent shells that were mixed with salt, decayed and corroded "in a singular manner". Mentions, as relevant to the value of seashells as manure, that they are dissolved more rapidly by water than any other form of carbonate of lime.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 14 Sept 1844] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, no. 37, 14 September 1844, pp. 628–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-778 |
To Solicitor? 1 October 1844
Summary
CD and Emma request transfer of some shares to E. A. Darwin.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 1 Oct 1844 |
Classmark: | V&A / Wedgwood Collection (MS W/M 977) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-779 |
To Adolf von Morlot 10 October [1844]
Summary
Says AM’s letters on glacial action not publishable since they do not give facts. Suggests readings on the subject of glaciers. Expresses doubts about AM’s theory that Scandinavian glaciers brought the boulders he was studying.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Adolphe Morlot (Adolph von Morlot) |
Date: | 10 Oct [1844] |
Classmark: | Burgerbibliothek Bern, Bern, Switzerland |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-780 |
To James David Forbes 11 October [1844]
Summary
Discusses a specimen of Mexican obsidian with an unusual laminated structure.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James David Forbes |
Date: | 11 Oct [1844] |
Classmark: | University of St Andrews Special Collections (Papers of J. D. Forbes: msdep7 – Incoming letters 1844, no.57) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-781 |
To Leonard Jenyns 12 October [1844]
Summary
Asks whether LJ can throw light on this subject: "What are the checks and what the periods of life by which the increase of any given species is limited?" CD has been driven to conclude that species are mutable; allied species are co-descendants from common stocks.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield |
Date: | 12 Oct [1844] |
Classmark: | Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-782 |
To Emma Darwin [20 or 27 October 1844]
Summary
Has been discussing wills and other legal matters with his father.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
Date: | [20 or 27] Oct 1844 |
Classmark: | Emma Darwin 2: 92 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-783 |
From J. D. Hooker 28 October 1844
Summary
Discusses the connection between climate and vegetation. Believes that an equable climate is unfavourable to increase of species either by importation or modification of existing forms; illustrates his view with reference to particular floras. Hopes to acquire facts to support CD’s idea that isolation is important in producing new forms. Considers the floras of islands some of which do have distinctive species but others of which do not. Agrees that the wide ranges of cryptogams are a consequence of their means of dispersal. Asks for references to works on original creation and species mutability in order to get the best notions of "the (mad) theories of some men from Lamarck’s twaddle upwards".
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Oct 1844 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 16–23 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-784 |
From Henry Denny 30 October 1844
Summary
Has never heard of species of same genus [of parasites] being found on both birds and mammals, or different genera and species being found on animals in the domestic and wild states. Implications of this for relationship of aperea and guinea-pig.
Author: | Henry Denny |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 30 Oct 1844 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 273 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-785 |
To J. D. Forbes [November? 1844]
Summary
Believes JDF’s discoveries in the structure of glacier ice will explain the structure of many volcanic masses. Will JDF’s views throw any light on the primary laminated rocks?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James David Forbes |
Date: | [Nov? 1844] |
Classmark: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2 1845: 18) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-786 |
To Henry Denny 7 November [1844]
Summary
Discusses HD’s information that same species of birds at remote stations have identical parasites. Urges him to investigate N. American land-bird parasites.
Is deeply interested in everything connected with geographical distribution, and the differences between species and varieties.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Denny |
Date: | 7 Nov [1844] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-787 |
From J. D. Hooker 8 November 1844
Summary
Sends notes on Infusoria for Ehrenberg.
Comments on distribution of species in natural orders that have local distributions. Intermediate forms between species of Lycopodium.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 8 Nov 1844 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 24–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-788 |
To J. D. Hooker [10–11 November 1844]
Summary
Origin of Antarctic brash ice.
Further on case of Lycopodium: does JDH know any genera of plants whose species are variable in one continent but not in another? Discussion on variations between floras as regards species richness, and factors affecting geographical distribution. On species, CD expects "that I shall be able to show even to sound naturalists that there are two sides to the question of the immutability of species; – that facts can be viewed and grouped under the notion of allied species having descended from common stocks". Mentions books and papers for and against species mutability. CD believes past absurd ideas arose from no one’s having approached subject on side of variation under domestication.
Would like to see Clarke’s paper
and would welcome visit from JDH.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [10–11 Nov 1844] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 19 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-789 |
To J. D. Forbes 13 [November 1844]
Summary
Mexican specimen of laminated obsidian.
Comments on Forbes’s publication comparing lava streams and glaciers. Mentions ice-action theories of a young German.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | James David Forbes |
Date: | 13 [Nov 1844] |
Classmark: | University of St Andrews Special Collections (Papers of J. D. Forbes: msdep7 – Incoming letters 1844, no.65) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-790 |
From J. D. Hooker 14 November 1844
Summary
Differences in variability of species within a single genus. Further observations on Lycopodium.
Interested in Humboldt’s river with different floras on opposite banks, and other unexplained cases of very local distributions.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 14 Nov 1844 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 26–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-791 |
To Gardeners’ Chronicle [before 23 November 1844]
Summary
Considers the transmutation of corn is well worth investigation ‘even if it should prove to be only a history of error’.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Gardeners’ Chronicle |
Date: | [before 23 Nov 1844] |
Classmark: | Gardeners’ Chronicle, 23 November 1844, p. 779 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-791F |
To J. D. Hooker [18 November 1844]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [18 Nov 1844] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 20 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-792 |
letter | (95) |
Darwin, C. R. | (74) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Waterhouse, G. R. | (3) |
Ehrenberg, C. G. | (2) |
Carpenter, W. B. | (1) |
Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
Darwin, C. R. | (22) |
Denny, Henry | (7) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (5) |
Carpenter, W. B. | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (95) |
Hooker, J. D. | (34) |
Denny, Henry | (8) |
Ehrenberg, C. G. | (5) |
Gardeners’ Chronicle | (5) |