To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer 24 August [1878]
Summary
Heliotropic responses in aerial roots and tendrils.
Sends seeds received from Fritz Müller.
Has been reading WTT-D’s lecture ["Plant-distribution as a field for geographical research", Proc. R. Geogr. Soc. 22: 412–45].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | 24 Aug [1878] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W. T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 144–5) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11675 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … T. Thiselton-Dyer, 23 June [1878]. CD refers to Gaston de Saporta ; see Saporta 1862–5 . …
- … Bibliography Saporta, Gaston de. 1862–5. Etudes sur la végétation du sud-est de la France …
- … à l’époque tertiaire. Annales des sciences naturelles (botanique) 4th ser. 16 (1862): 309– …
- … 45; 17 (1862): 191–311; 19 (1863): 5–124; 5th ser. 3 (1865): 5–152; 4 (1865): 5–264. …
To T. H. Huxley 11 June [1878]
Summary
Thanks for evolution article; would like to know what made Lamarck "change his front" so completely.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Date: | 11 June [1878] |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 331) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11550 |
To W. R. Greg 31 December 1878
Summary
Discusses a chapter on design, written by WRG’s son [Percy Greg, The devil’s advocate (1878)]. Comments on the younger Greg’s criticisms of natural selection and evolution.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Rathbone Greg |
| Date: | 31 Dec 1878 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.557) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11812 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Longmans, Green & Co. Saporta, Gaston de. 1862–5. Etudes sur la végétation du sud-est de …
- … à l’époque tertiaire. Annales des sciences naturelles (botanique) 4th ser. 16 (1862): 309– …
- … 45; 17 (1862): 191–311; 19 (1863): 5– 124; 5th ser. 3 (1865): 5–152; 4 (1865): 5–264. …
- … CD refers to Gaston de Saporta and Saporta 1862–5 and 1867–8; Albert Oppel and Oppel 1856– …
From Ernst Haeckel 9 February 1878
Summary
Sends birthday wishes.
Discusses his work on the Challenger [expedition] Radiolaria.
| Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Feb 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 71 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11348 |
From W. D. Fox 22 July [1878]
Summary
Thanks CD for his condolences. Reminisces about their youth.
On the death of his naturalist friend, W. C. Hewitson.
| Author: | William Darwin Fox |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 July [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 203 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11625 |
From T. H. Huxley 2 July 1878
Summary
Othniel Marsh of Yale would like to visit CD.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 350 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11582 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of 1878; Marsh had first met Huxley in 1862 ( Schuchert 1938 , pp. 19 and 32). Huxley’s …
To Asa Gray 15 August 1878
Summary
Climbing plants.
Requests seeds of Echinocystis lobata for Hugo de Vries.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 15 Aug 1878 |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (124) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11659 |
To Sophy Wedgwood 24 March [1878–80]
Summary
Asks her to observe seedlings of Neottia breaking the surface to see whether the flower stems grow straight up or form arches, and whether they secrete water that softens the surrounding ground.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Katherine Elizabeth Sophy (Sophy) Wedgwood |
| Date: | 24 Mar [1878-80] |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 4251: 333) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11442 |
From T. H. Farrer 4 May 1878
Summary
Sends Ledum, the nectar of which catches many insects.
Describes his Primula varieties.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 May 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 91 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11494 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 6 (1862): 77–96. [ Collected papers 2: 45–63. ] …
To A. S. Wilson 9 August [1878]
Summary
Responds to ASW’s information about Erythraea
and about wasps on Scrophularia.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alexander Stephen Wilson |
| Date: | 9 Aug [1878] |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 7339: 57) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11646 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 10, letter to W. E. Darwin, [24 July 1862] . In his letter of 6 August 1878 , Wilson …
To Francis Darwin 14 July [1878]
Summary
Asks for list of families of sleeping plants. Believes sleep is merely modified circumnutation at a particular time of day.
Porlieria has had no water for some time but shows no sign of flagging.
Describes the response of Thalia flowers to touch.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 14 July [1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 211: 35, 36, 39 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11608 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862. Vries, Hugo de. 1872. Ueber einige Ursachen …
To Alphonse de Candolle 15 August 1878
Summary
CD cannot say he cares greatly about his election to the Institut but he does care for the sympathy of his friends.
Will look to Smilax when he returns to Down.
Regrets the insecurity of the identification of fossil leaves.
He has heard that De Bary has cultivated Utricularia with and without aquatic animals and that the plants that have been fed flourished "in a stupendous manner".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alphonse de Candolle |
| Date: | 15 Aug 1878 |
| Classmark: | Archives de la famille de Candolle (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11660 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 10, letter from J. D. Hooker, 10 July 1862 ). Casimir de Candolle had worked on …
From Francis Darwin [21 July 1878]
Summary
Has been investigating nutational movements of climbing plants; comments on the opinions of Julius von Wiesner and Julius Sachs. Remarks on the sleep movements of certain plants and the mechanism of tendril curvature. Is experimenting with Porlieria.
Has visited K. G. Semper’s laboratory.
| Author: | Francis Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [21 July 1878] |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 59, DAR 209.8: 151 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11623 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … family Araliaceae (see Bentham and Hooker 1862 –83, 1: 931–47); for modern systematics of …
From C. B. Clarke 12 May 1878
Summary
Reports curious case of dimorphism in Rubiaceae. Encloses envelope containing bud samples.
| Author: | Charles Baron Clarke |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 May 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 160 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11505 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … in Genera plantarum (Bentham and Hooker 1862 –83, 2: 69). Orders in Genera plantarum are …
From Hermann Müller 5 July 1878
Summary
Reports results of crosses between the two forms of Viola tricolor: 1. Female small flower crossed with male large flower yields all small flowers (cleistogamous self-fertilisation suspected); 2. Male small flower crossed with female large yields intermediate flowers; 3. Large flower crossed with large flower yields self-sterility symptoms.
| Author: | Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 July 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 310 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11592 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862. West, David A. 2016. Darwin’s man in Brazil: …
To Hermann Müller 20 September 1878
Summary
Writing on vegetable physiology.
Nothing in CD’s life has ever interested him more than the fertilisation of such plants as Primula and Lythrum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller |
| Date: | 20 Sept 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 146: 439 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11698 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862. …
From Arnold Dodel-Port 12 June 1878
Summary
Comments on publication of his Atlas der Botanik [1878]. Discusses possible English edition. Draws CD’s attention to plates of Drosera in Atlas. Mentions contribution offered by Hermann Müller, and support by German professors of botany.
| Author: | Arnold Dodel-Port |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 12 June 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11552 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862. …
| letter | (17) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (9) |
| Clarke, C. B. | (1) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Dodel-Port, Arnold | (1) |
| Farrer, T. H. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (1) |
| Darwin, Francis | (1) |
| Gray, Asa | (1) |
| Greg, W. R. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (17) |
| Darwin, Francis | (2) |
| Huxley, T. H. | (2) |
| Müller, Hermann | (2) |
| Candolle, Alphonse de | (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: 28 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
- … be so’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 and] 20 November [1862] ). I have not the least …
- … him from this view ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 14 [January 1862] ): 'no doubt you are right …
- … Huxley replied ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 January 1862 ): 'I entertain no doubt that …
- … but continued ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 18 December [1862] ): 'you say the answer to …
- … but complained ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1862] ): 'To get the degree of …
- … him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ). Darwin was altogether taken …
- … is no common man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). Two sexual forms: …
- … with his study of Primula and escalated throughout 1862 as he searched for other cases of …
- … 1861, and was published in the society’s journal in March 1862. The paper described the two …
- … in almost daily’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). In a postscript, he mentioned his work …
- … telling Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1862] ): ‘I am nearly sure that daylight is …
- … great’, he told Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 10–20 June [1862] ), ‘I have lately counted one by one …
- … labour over them’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; see ML 2: 292–3). Other …
- … of dimorphism’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 12 [April 1862] ), and experimenting to test his …
- … sets of experiments’ ( letter to M. T. Masters, 24 July [1862] ). The materials that Darwin …
- … case he determined to experiment on Linum in 1862. Soon he was enthralled, especially by the …
- … be generically distinct’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 14 July [1862] ). The case was so good that he …
- … Linum ‘at once’ ( letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ), writing up his experiments in …
- … complex case—’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 29 [July 1862] ). The three forms had different lengths …
- … who exclaimed to Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 9 August [1862] ), ‘I am almost stark staring mad over …
- … the Linnean Society ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 6 October [1862] ). However, it was not until 1864 …
- … pleasure to ride’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). But he worried about the resulting …
- … the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] ). To his son, William, his …
- … every flower’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 8 June [1862] ). I never before felt half so …
- … he told Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1862] ). But he did not have long to wait. ‘It is …
- … it ‘most valuable’ (letter from George Bentham, 15 May 1862). Orchids was published on 15 May, …
- … all, ‘a success’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June 1862] ). a flank-movement on the …
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: 5 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a …
- … edition (see letter from H. G. Bronn, [before 11 March 1862] ). Since the publication of the …
- … of importance’ (see letter to H. G. Bronn, 11 March [1862] ). Darwin had sent Bronn some of these …
- … in the new edition; in his letter to Bronn of 25 April [1862 ], he mentioned that he was sending …
- … from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 11 July 1862 ). (No American edition incorporating …
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: 8 hits
- … in the mud. BEGINNING OF WAR IN AMERICA: 1861-1862 In which the start of the American …
- … cause. Tension. THE DARWIN BOYS: 1862 In which Darwin reports one …
- … 1856 33 C DARWIN TO JD HOOKER, 14 MARCH 1862 34 JD HOOKER TO C DARWIN, …
- … 1861 115 A GRAY TO CHARLES WRIGHT, 17 APRIL 1862 116 A GRAY TO RW CHURCH 7 MAY …
- … 10 JUNE 1861 121 A GRAY TO C DARWIN, 31 MARCH 1862 122 JD HOOKER TO C …
- … 16 DEC 1861 124 A GRAY TO ENGELMANN, 20 FEB 1862 125 A GRAY TO C DARWIN, 31 …
- … 7 JULY 1863 152 C DARWIN TO JD HOOKER, DECEMBER 1862 153 JD HOOKER TO C …
- … 1861 163 C Darwin TO A Gray, 16 OCTOBER 1862 164 C Darwin TO ASA GRAY, …
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: 6 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
- … vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1862] , and volume 10, letter to Thomas Rivers, …
- … a construction suitable for tropical plants. In 1861 and 1862, while preparing Orchids , he was …
- … vol. 10, letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] and n. 13). Initially, Darwin purchased for …
- … over the previous two years. In a letter of 24 December [1862] ( Correspondence vol. 10) …
- … Kent ( Post Office directory of the six home counties 1862). 3. Asclepias curassavica. …
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
- … Lubbock, after making a mistake in his research on bees in 1862. …
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…
Clémence Auguste Royer
Summary
Getting Origin translated into French was harder than Darwin had expected. The first translator he approached, Madame Belloc, turned him down on the grounds that the content was ‘too scientific‘, and then in 1860 the French political exile Pierre…
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: 5 hits
- … Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to Darwin, [29 October 1862] Henrietta Darwin provides …
- … Letter 3634 - Darwin to Gray, A., [1 July 1862] Darwin tells American naturalist Asa …
- … 3681 - Wedgwood, M. S. to Darwin, [before 4 August 1862] Darwin’s niece, Margaret, …
- … lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W. E. , (March, 1862 - DAR 219.1:49) Emma Darwin …
- … - Darwin to Wedgwood, K. E. S, M. S. & L. C., [4 August 1862] Darwin thanks his “angel …
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…
Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 1 October [1861] To Charles Lyell, 1 April [1862] To Charles Lyell, 14 October …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
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: 4 hits
- … SOURCES Books Darwin, Charles 1862. On the various contrivances by which …
- … 3421 —Charles Darwin to Joseph Dalton Hooker 30 January 1862 Darwin tells Hooker about a …
- … Letter 3662 —Charles Darwin to Asa Gray 23-4 July 1862 Darwin tells Asa Gray, a professor …
- … Darwin’s work with orchids and Chapter 1 of Darwin’s 1862 book On the various …
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: 6 hits
- … briefly mentioned in his Primula paper. In July 1862, Darwin explained to Gray, ‘ I have …
- … of the genus Linum ’, between 11 and 21 December 1862. The paper was read at a meeting of the …
- … to Lythrum , a genus that he had begun researching in 1862 after Hooker had supplied him with …
- … of Lythrum he had been working on since late July 1862. He told Oliver that, ‘ as each form has …
- … of the crossing experiments immediately, but by October 1862, he admitted to Hooker, ‘ I am rather …
- … 117: 50). Darwin released William from counting in November 1862, telling him, ‘ Next year I shall …
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…
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: 4 hits
- … on Verbascum. Darwin had suggested to Scott in 1862, when Scott was working at the Royal Botanic …
- … vol. 10, letter to John Scott, 19 November [1862] ). Darwin had already written to Hooker of …
- … disturbing the serenity of the Christian world’ (Brewster 1862, p. 3). John Hutton Balfour, though …
- … vol. 10, letter from J. H. Balfour, 14 January 1862 ). According to Hooker, Balfour’s prejudice …
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
- … [1859] Letter to Charles Kingsley, 6 February [1862] Letter from F. W. Farrar, …
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…
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…
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
- … lady”. Darwin, E. to Darwin, W. E. , (March 1862 - DAR 219.1:49) Emma Darwin …
Sexual selection
Summary
Although natural selection could explain the differences between species, Darwin realised that (other than in the reproductive organs themselves) it could not explain the often marked differences between the males and females of the same species. So what…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the Lords' ( to J. D. Hooker, 25 [and 26] January [1862] ) In 1869, Darwin …
