From J. D. Hooker 10 July 1856
Summary
[T. Bell Salter’s?] "hybrid" Epilobium a false claim.
Admires Huxley’s response to Falconer [see 1904].
Tristan da Cunha plant list, requested by CD, supports JDH’s position [on continental extension?].
Chilean plants not exceptional.
JDH considers parallels between Australian Alps and European plants strong evidence for multiple creations.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 July 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 96–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1923 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … Hooker, [26 June or 3 July 1856] , and letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 July [1856] . …
- … provinces. T. H. Huxley 1856b , a response to Falconer 1856 . See letters to J. D. …
- … Hooker, 5 [July 1856] . See letter to J. D. …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 5 July [1856] . See letter from J. D. …
- … of the same point in the insect kingdom (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 July [1856] ). …
- … Hooker, 21 [May 1856] and 17–18 [June 1856]. T. H. Huxley 1855 . See letter to J. D. …
- … and Arnott 1855. See letter from J. D. Hooker, [26 June or 3 July 1856] . John Stevens …
- … 1856] , n. 3. The list was annotated by Hooker, giving brief descriptions of the localities inhabited by the twelve species. At the bottom, CD wrote: ‘These genera, Hooker says are not particularly wide rangers; but species with restricted ranges. — Nothing particular in short. —’ CD used Hooker’s information in Natural selection , pp. 553–4. Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Mueller was the government botanist in Melbourne, Australia. From 1853, he issued annual reports on the vegetation of the colony. See letter …
From J. S. Henslow 2 August 1856
Summary
One plant in self-sown patch of Aegilops has assumed a triticoidal character; JSH feels it may be an example of Aegilops passing to wheat.
Author: | John Stevens Henslow |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Aug 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 178 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1936 |
From Asa Gray 4 November 1856
Summary
Outlines the ranges of northern U. S. species common to Europe. Hopes to investigate the resemblances between the floras of the north-eastern U. S. and western Europe. Discusses routes by which alpine plants appear to have reached U. S.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Nov 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 95 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1982 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … In his letter to Asa Gray, 24 August [1856] , CD had indicated that he considered the …
- … to range northwards (see letter to Asa Gray, 12 October [1856] ). When he received the …
- … in the margin, ‘dele’. Letter to Asa Gray, 12 October [1856] , in which CD referred to the …
- … which the introduced species belonged (see letter to Asa Gray, 12 October [1856] ). A. …
- … Gray 1856a . See letter to Asa Gray, 12 October [1856] , n. 6. Gray refers …
- … Dalton Hooker with his own letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 November [1856] . …
- … D. Hooker] 1856, a review of A. de Candolle 1855 . CD forwarded Gray’s letter to Joseph …
From George Dickie 1 December 1856
Author: | George Dickie |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Dec 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 207: 16 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2009 |
From Charles Cardale Babington 22 November 1856
Summary
He is not sure whether he has seen Subularia flowering above the water, but thinks it probably is an aerial flowerer, at least sometimes.
Has been unable to find an anonymous book on pigeons in the University Library.
Author: | Charles Cardale Babington |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Nov 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 207: 15 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1996 |
From J. D. Hooker [26 June or 3 July 1856]
Summary
Can no longer make out story of NW. American plants; consulting Asa Gray.
Questionable validity of seed-salting experiments.
Aristolochia and Viscum seem to shed pollen before flower opens.
Ray Society should only do translations.
Thomas Thomson in India has rediscovered Aldrovanda, a rare relative of Drosera.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [26 June or 3 July] 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 197 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1911 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … 5 [July 1856] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] . CD was anxious to ascertain …
- … asking the same question (see letter to Asa Gray, 14 July [1856] ). Hooker was mistaken in …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] . See letter to T. H. Huxley, 4 May [1856] , in which …
- … dates are the two Thursdays between the letters to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] and …
- … and Hewett Cottrell Watson ( letter from H. C. Watson, 5 June 1856) whether these species …
- … annotations, above, and letter from J. D. Hooker, 10 July 1856 ). Ludwig Radlkofer was an …
- … 1856 ). Siebold overturned Richard Owen’s definition of parthenogenesis ( Owen 1849 ) by showing that the cells from which new organisms developed were true ova and not simply pre-existing ‘germinal’ cells contained within the parent’s body. Siebold demonstrated that these ova were capable of development without fertilisation. See Farley 1982 , pp. 100–5. See letter …
From Charles Lyell 3 October 1859
Summary
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: B1–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 , and letter to Charles …
- … and Correspondence vol. 6, letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 . Lyell refers to the …
- … 1856, Lyell had encouraged CD to publish his species theory (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
- … Lyell, 3 May [1856] ). For Lyell’s interest in CD’s pigeon work, see letter from Whitwell …
From J. D. Hooker 22 November 1856
Summary
Continued debate on formation of species as a result of retreat from glaciers.
JDH suggests internal powers of species modification, which he knows CD abhors.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Nov 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 111–12 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1995 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Hooker, 23 November [1856] ). See letter from Asa …
- … Hooker, 18 November [1856] . CD did not communicate this information (see letter to J. D. …
- … See letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 November [1856] and n. 2. Thomas Thomson was …
- … 4 November 1856 , which CD had sent to Hooker to read. The remainder of the letter is …
From Joseph Beete Jukes 27 February 1860
Summary
Believes in the "perfect indefiniteness & frequently the vast length of the interval" between consecutive geological formations. Thus has little respect for arguments against CD based on the absence of transitional forms in the geological record. States that species found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are really varieties of greatly differing ages. CD’s theory accounts for the progressive inprovement, multiplication and increase in complexity that can be seen, but which may often be only relative.
Author: | Joseph Beete Jukes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Feb 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 125–7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2716A |
From P. L. Sclater 17 April 1861
Summary
Corrects CD’s statement [Origin, 3d ed.] that Madeira does not possess one peculiar bird. There is one, out of the 99.
Author: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 292 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3121 |
From Edward Blyth 23 January 1856
Summary
Believes the goldfish originates from a wild, gold variety of Chinese carp.
Gallinaceous birds.
Crested turkeys.
EB divides the gallinaceous birds into five families on anatomical distinctions.
Wild dog species of India and Asia; ranges of some species, specific identity of others.
The fauna of the Seychelles.
Breeding of fowls in India and Africa.
Occurrence of turkeys in Africa.
Refers to some of his own papers giving fuller details of points raised previously.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Jan 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: A122–A125 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1825 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … See letter from Edward Blyth, 8 January [1856] . Blyth had previously discussed this …
- … Sporting Review , see letter from Edward Blyth, 8 January 1856 , n. 6. See Correspondence …
- … do not occur in a state of nature. ’ See letter from Edward Blyth, 8 January 1856 , n. 6. …
- … The article has not been located. See letter from Edward Blyth, 8 January [1856] , n. 6. …
- … Blyth’s evidence for this view, see letter from Edward Blyth, 23 February 1856 and n. …
- … of Mauritius, see letters from Victor de Robillard , 20 September 1856 and 26 February …
- … 16. See letter from Edward Blyth , [ c. 22 March 1856] and n. 16. Horace Hayman Wilson …
- … letter (DAR 203), CD noted: ‘variation of wild Gallus Bankiva’. In his discussion of Gallus bankiva in Variation 1: 235, CD noted that in the Indian G. bankiva , ‘Mr. Blyth finds the tarsus remarkably variable in length. ’ Ogilby 1835 , p. 103–4. Albin 1731–8 , 2: pl. 33. In February 1856, …
From T. V. Wollaston [c. 27 June 1856]
Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 27 June 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 300 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1912A |
From John Obadiah Westwood 23 November 1856
Summary
The Kentucky cave insects (Adelops) are evidently identical to European species of the same genus, some of which are cave insects, others found in damp, dark places.
Author: | John Obadiah Westwood |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Nov 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 297 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1998 |
From C. J. F. Bunbury 16 April 1856
Summary
Is interested by what CD tells him about his researches and speculations on species, variation, and distribution. Hopes he will not give up the idea of publishing his views. Advises CD on need for caution and candour. Raises some difficulties with "specific centre" theory of distribution.
Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 Apr 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 218 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1854 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … from C. J. F. Bunbury, 7 February 1856 . See letter from C. J. F. Bunbury, 7 February …
- … 9, and letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 , n. 7. E. Forbes 1854 . Discussed by …
- … s further views on CD’s theories, see letter to C. J. F. Bunbury, 21 April [1856] , n. …
- … 1856 My dear Darwin, I hardly know how to account for my long silence, after the very interesting letter …
From J. D. Hooker 4 August 1856
Summary
JDH’s arguments against transmutation: 1. Plants do not show the confusion he would expect; 2. Under clearly similar physical conditions we do not find same species.
JDH’s argument against migration: commonality of alpine species. Believes migration opposes facts of botanical distribution in Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand; prefers continental extension theory.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Aug 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 100–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1937 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Aug 4 th . 1856 Dear Darwin Thanks for Lyells letters which are very tough reading— I …
- … in 1860 ( J. D. Hooker 1855 [–60]). See letter from Charles Lyell, 17 June 1856 . …
- … See letter to Charles Lyell, 5 July [1856] . An allusion to the transmutationist views …
- … See letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 July [1856] . Godwin-Austen 1856 was read at a meeting of …
- … Chambers] 1844 ). See letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 July [1856] . In a lecture delivered at …
From Peter Wallace 10 September 1856
Author: | Peter Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 10 Sept 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 261 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1953 |
From W. B. Tegetmeier 4 May [1861]
Author: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 May [1861] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 256 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3139 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … B. Tegetmeier, 24 June [1856], and letter from Charles Lyell, …
- … manifest. See Correspondence vol. 6, letters to W. D. Fox, 15 March [1856] , and to W. …
- … 1856 , n. 10. See also Origin , pp. 445–6, and Variation 1: 178, 248–50. Bernard Peirce Brent was a frequent contributor to both the Cottage Gardener and the Field on various subjects pertaining to domesticated birds and animals. Tegetmeier’s paper on Antwerp carrier pigeons did not appear in the Natural History Review , of which Thomas Henry Huxley was chief editor. See letters …
From J. D. Hooker 7 November 1862
Summary
JDH admits he wrote Gardeners’ Chronicle and Natural History Review articles on orchids [Gard. Chron. (1862): 789–90, 863, 910; Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 371–6].
JDH’s objections to CD’s idea of how Greenland was repopulated. Temperate Greenland has as Arctic a flora as Arctic Greenland – a fact of astounding force. Why should certain Scandinavian species be absent? Migration by sea-currents can no more account for the present distribution in Greenland than can special creation.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Nov 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 68–9, 73–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3797 |
From William Henry Harvey 3 January 1857
Summary
Sexes of algae.
Author: | William Henry Harvey |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Jan 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 115 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2035 |
From Charles Lyell 28 August 1860
Summary
Objections to Origin which Owen and Wilberforce could have used. Why have incipient mammalian forms not arisen from lower vertebrates on islands separated since Miocene period? Knows CD would not derive Eocene Mammalia from higher reptiles, but would bats not be modified into other mammalian forms on an ancient island? This is not the case in New Zealand. Why have island seals not become terrestrial? Assumes rate of change is greatest in mammals. Difficulties are small compared with ability to explain absence of Mammalia in pre-Pliocene islands. Asks about descent of Amblyrhynchus. Believes objections apply equally well to independent creation of animal types, but not if the First Cause is allowed completely free agency.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Aug 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/6: 164–71) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2900A |
letter | (215) |
Hooker, J. D. | (40) |
Gray, Asa | (12) |
Blyth, Edward | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (8) |
Watson, H. C. | (8) |
Darwin, C. R. | (215) |
Hooker, J. D. | (40) |
Gray, Asa | (12) |
Blyth, Edward | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (8) |

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …

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 …
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 …

Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to …

Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
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
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
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 …

Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘ Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming …

Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …

Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …

Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …

Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
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 …

Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …

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 …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a …

Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …

Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …

Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …