From Maxwell Tylden Masters 19 September 1864
Summary
Explains several monstrous flowers sent by CD.
Author: | Maxwell Tylden Masters |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 Sept 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 70 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4617 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … together with a description, was published in Masters 1869 , pp. 384–6. Masters …
- … of Pogonia ophioglossoides in Masters 1869 , p. 386, recording his indebtedness to the ‘ …
- … entitled ‘Increased number of stamens in orchids, &c. ’ ( Masters 1869 , pp. 380–8). …
- … 8 (1865): 207–11. Masters, Maxwell Tylden. 1869. Vegetable teratology, an account of the …
- … refers to Lilium candidum (see Masters 1869 , pp. 375–6). For CD’s remarks on this …
- … torsion in Galium are discussed in Masters 1869 , pp. 321–2, and an illustration of the …
- … 323. There is an annotated copy of Masters 1869 in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia …
- … fullonum is also described in Masters 1869 , pp. 320–1. Masters refers to Chavannes …
- … in Digitalis purpurea is discussed in Masters 1869 , p. 315. William Arnold Bromfield …
From J. D. Hooker 16 September 1864
Summary
Rejoices that CD is beginning "the book of books", Variation.
Suggests that changes in colour of pollen, stigma, and corolla, as Scott reports in his Primula paper, may be related to changes in the insects required for pollination.
Supports Gärtner translation by Ray Society.
Comments on recent addresses by Lyell [Rep. BAAS 34 (1864): lx–lxxv], Bentham [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 8 (1864): ix–xxiii], and Murchison [Rep. BAAS 34 (1864): 130–6].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 16 Sept 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 243–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4614 |
To J. D. Hooker 13 April [1864]
Summary
CD has told Scott not to hope for help from JDH.
Health improving.
Hopes to write Lythrum paper soon.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 Apr [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 229 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4461 |
To Ernst Haeckel 21 November [1864]
Summary
Sends Living Cirripedia [vol. 2].
Has employed translator for Fritz Müller’s book [Für Darwin (1864)].
Thanks for paper and speech.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
Date: | 21 Nov [1864] |
Classmark: | Ernst-Haeckel-Haus (Bestand A–Abt. 1: 1–52/6) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4676 |
From W. E. Darwin [30 April 1864]
Summary
[Outline sketches of pollen from long- and short-styled yellow cowslips and from red cowslip, magnified 350x.]
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [30 Apr 1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 108: 84 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4478 |
To Friedrich Hildebrand 25 June [1864]
Summary
Thanks for orchids.
Recovering from nine months’ illness.
Discusses fertilisation of Pulmonaria.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Friedrich Hermann Gustav (Friedrich) Hildebrand |
Date: | 25 June [1864] |
Classmark: | Courtesy of Eilo Hildebrand (photocopy) (Original, previously owned by Klaus Groove, sold by Venator and Hanstein, Cologne (dealers), 16 March 2018.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4545 |
From A. R. Wallace 29 May [1864]
Summary
Argues the antiquity of the human species because natural selection acts differently with respect to men. Changes in man are largely confined to head and brain. Warfare and sex are very uncertain as means of selection.
Gives CD complete credit for theory of natural selection.
Is beginning his narrative of his travels.
Lyell argues against tracing man as far back as Miocene times. R. I. Murchison’s argument that Africa is the oldest existing land implies that Africa is the place to look for early man.
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 May [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 106: B14–19 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4514 |
From John Scott 7 January [1864]
Summary
Has finished correcting Primula paper [see 4332].
Has presented paper on monoecious spikes of maize [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 19 (1864): 213–20].
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Jan [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 98, 99 f.3; Edinburgh Courant, 19 December 1863, p. 8. |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4382 |
From J. D. Hooker 6 April 1864
Summary
J. H. Balfour gives Scott excellent character reference, but says he is unfit either to superintend or be subordinate.
Herbert Spencer’s review of J. M. Schleiden is interesting [see 4457].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 Apr 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 204–5; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence English letters Balfour 1866–1900 vol. 78: 311) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4452 |
From Ernst Haeckel 26 October 1864
Summary
Thanks CD for notes concerning the development of his ideas about the origin of species. Says August Schleicher and Carl Gegenbaur also interested.
Names new supporters of CD’s theory, including Max Schultze, Rudolf Leuckart, and Alexander Braun. Zoologists have been more interested than botanists.
He is writing a general work on the relationships among animals [Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866)].
Comments on Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin [1864].
Gegenbaur is revising his Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie [2d ed. (1870)] to accord with evolution.
Thanks CD for copy of book on balanids [Living Cirripedia, vol. 2].
Author: | Ernst Philipp August (Ernst) Haeckel |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26 Oct 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 39 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4646 |
From G. C. Oxenden 1 August 1864
Summary
Spent two days watching Epipactis palustris in a bog. Never saw a moth.
Thinks "Suddenism" and not "Graduality" is the great Law of Nature.
Author: | George Chichester Oxenden |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Aug 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 173: 62, 66 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4581 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
From A. R. Wallace 2 January 1864
Summary
Remarks on ARW’s review of Samuel Haughton’s paper on bees’ cells
and Origin.
Agassiz’s strength as geologist and weakness in natural history theory.
Work problems.
His butterfly collection.
Problems with book on Malay journey.
Recommends Herbert Spencer and his Social statics.
Spencer’s "masterly" nebular hypothesis.
Author: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 Jan 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 106: B8–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4378 |
To Frederick Smith [c. 17 February 1864?]
Summary
Sends, for identification, specimens of bees and wasps which fertilise orchids. [Notes in FS’s hand on the same sheet identify the specimens.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Frederick Smith |
Date: | [c. 17 Feb 1864?] |
Classmark: | DAR 70: 162 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3365 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
To J. D. Hooker 13 June [1864]
Summary
W. H. Harvey’s dandelion case worth publishing.
Suspects the uniform Primula elatior JDH referred to is a distinct species.
Scott’s paper on Passiflora shows variability of reproductive systems.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 13 June [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 239 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4531 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 10 (1869): 437–54. Variation : The variation of animals …
To Daniel Oliver 18 March [1864]
Summary
Thanks for information on Tecoma.
Cannot believe DO’s statement about Catasetum; is sure C. tridentatum sets seeds in its native country.
CD erred on Acropera, but how is it naturally fertilised?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 18 Mar [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 261.10: 59 (EH 88206042) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4430 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
To Roland Trimen 13 May 1864
Summary
Oxalis plants have arrived safely [see 4347].
CD regrets his mistake about Disa; will correct it.
Thanks RT for his additional facts about Disa.
Is recovering slowly from ten months’ illness.
Asks whether Strelitzia reginae grows in gardens at the Cape. Suspects it must be fertilised by a bird.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 13 May 1864 |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 59) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4493 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
To Roland Trimen 25 November 1864
Summary
Has forwarded RT’s paper on Bonatea to the Linnean Society [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1865): 156–60].
The Oxalis sent by RT flowered but CD has made out only two forms; he thinks there ought to be three, so would welcome more seed.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
Date: | 25 Nov 1864 |
Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 60) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4680 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
To J. D. Hooker 8 October [1864]
Summary
Huxley has answered Kölliker in Natural History Review [(1864): 566–80].
CD is correcting two of Scott’s papers; is convinced primrose and cowslip are two good species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 8 Oct [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 251 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4630 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 10 (1869): 437–54. [Thomson, Thomas]. 1864. Agardh’s …
To J. D. Hooker 10 June [1864]
Summary
CD has proved common oxlip to be a hybrid of cowslip and primrose.
Reviewing literature on climbing plants, CD finds he has much new material.
W. H. Harvey claims evidence of saltation in a dandelion.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 10 June [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 238a–c |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4525 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 10 (1869): 437–54. ‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria ’: …
To John Traherne Moggridge 19 June [1864]
Summary
Discusses fertilisation of flowers by bees. Thanks JTM for drawings.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Traherne Moggridge |
Date: | 19 June [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 372 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4540 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … and Magazine of Natural History 4th ser. 4 (1869): 141–59. [ Collected papers 2: 138–56. ] …
letter | (43) |
Darwin, C. R. | (21) |
Scott, John | (5) |
Darwin, W. E. | (4) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Wallace, A. R. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Hooker, J. D. | (7) |
Darwin, W. E. | (2) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Moggridge, J. T. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (40) |
Hooker, J. D. | (10) |
Darwin, W. E. | (6) |
Scott, John | (5) |
Wallace, A. R. | (3) |

Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 27 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition …
- … that is something’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869] ). Much of the remainder of …
- … to be the case’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 January 1869 ). Hooker went straight to a crucial …
- … probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , and letter from A. R. Wallace, …
- … in distribution’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Darwin had argued ( Origin , pp. …
- … formation’ ( letter to James Croll, 31 January [1869] ). Croll could not supply Darwin with an …
- … have got that yet’ ( letter from James Croll, 4 February 1869 ). Darwin did not directly …
- … towards [Thomson]’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 19 March [1869] ). Towards Descent …
- … ‘everlasting old Origin’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 1 June [1869] ), he was able to return to work on …
- … ( letter from Robert Elliot to George Cupples, 21 June 1869 ). Details on mating behaviour …
- … in the garden ( letter from Frederick Smith, 8 October 1869 ). Albert Günther, assistant in the …
- … varieties ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 February [1869] ). The data contined to …
- … cocks & hens.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 November [1869] ). Yet completion of the work was …
- … for Descent . Researching emotion In 1869, Darwin still expected that Descent …
- … hatred—’ ( from Asa Gray and J. L. Gray, 8 and 9 May [1869] ). James Crichton-Browne and …
- … ( enclosure to letter from Henry Maudsley, 20 May 1869 ). Darwin had often complained of the …
- … in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). More remarkable still were Wallace …
- … seem to you like some mental hallucination’ ( 18 April 1869 ). Since his marriage to Annie …
- … (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and scolded him for again being too …
- … demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). Proceeding on all fronts …
- … South American cordillera ( letter to Charles Lyell, 20 May 1869 ), and fossil discoveries in …
- … investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a letter to the Gardeners …
- … of the soil ( letter to Gardeners’ Chronicle , 9 May [1869] ). In March, Darwin received …
- … in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This research contributed to …
- … editions ( see letter from Victor Masson, 29 September 1869 ). The work had been undertaken, like …
- … Animals”’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 November [1869] ). Angered by these proceedings, Darwin …
- … of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an explication of Darwinian …

Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 11 hits
- … Crichton-Browne, James 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Crichton-Browne, James 19 May 1869 West Riding …
- … Gray, Asa 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Jane 9 May [1869] [Alexandria, Egypt] …
- … Gray, Asa 8 & 9 May 1869 Florence, Italy (about …
- … King, P.G. 25 Feb 1869 Sydney, Australia …
- … Maudsley, Henry 20 May 1869 32 Queen Anne St. …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 17 Jan 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 28 June [1869] Sierra Leone, …
- … Reade, Winwood W. 26 Dec 1869 Sierra Leone, Africa …
- … Scott, John 2 July 1869 Royal Botanic Gardens, …
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: 4 hits
- … Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May 1869] Jane Loring Gray, …
- … Williams , M. S. to Darwin, H. E., [after 14 October 1869] Darwin’s niece, Margaret, …
- … Letter 6815 - Scott, J. to Darwin, [2 July 1869] John Scott responds to Darwin’s …
- … - Darwin to Gunther, A. C. L. G., [21 September 1869] Darwin asks Gunther for “a great …

Jane Gray
Summary
Jane Loring Gray, the daughter of a Boston lawyer, married the Harvard botanist Asa Gray in 1848 and evidence suggests that she took an active interest in the scientific pursuits of her husband and his friends. Although she is only known to have…
Matches: 3 hits

Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
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…

Photograph album of Dutch admirers
Summary
Darwin received the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific admirers in the Netherlands. He wrote to the Dutch zoologist Pieter Harting, An account of your countrymen’s generous sympathy in having sent me on my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … work on human expression. Donders visited Darwin in 1869 , and a year later Darwin consoled him …

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…

Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…

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
- … Letter 6976 - Darwin to Blackwell, A. B., [8 November 1869] Darwin thanks Antoinette …

Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…

John Beddoe
Summary
In 1869, when gathering data on sexual selection in humans, Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with John Beddoe, a doctor in Bristol. He was looking for evidence that racial differences that appear to have no benefit in terms of survival - and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1869 Darwin exchanged a short series of letters with a John Beddoe, a doctor in …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…

Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 4 hits
- … himself an injustice & never demands justice” (14 April 1869). But Wallace continued, both …
- … about the application of natural selection to ‘man’ in 1869, and looked instead to a ‘higher …
- … investigation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 18 April [1869]). Wallace’s views on man were also …
- … the “great General” (letter to Charles Kingsley, 7 May 1869). In later years when Darwin reflected …

Francis Galton
Summary
Galton was a naturalist, statistician, and evolutionary theorist. He was a second cousin of Darwin’s, having descended from his grandfather, Erasmus. Born in Birmingham in 1822, Galton studied medicine at King’s College, London, and also read mathematics…
Matches: 1 hits
- … was later expanded into the book, Hereditary Genius (1869), which contained an entry on the …
6430_10256
Summary
From Sven Nilsson to J. D. Hookerf1 25 October 1868Lund (Suède)25 Okt. 1868.Monsieur le Professeur! J’ai écrit à deux de mes amis qui ont des connaissances personnelles à la Lapponie, pour avoir les…
About the project
Summary
On this site you can read and search the full texts of more than 7,500 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and find information on 7,500 more. Available here are complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are…
Matches: 1 hits
- … all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1869. More are being added all the time. …

John Lubbock
Summary
John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…
Matches: 1 hits
- … John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down …

Family life
Summary
From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through correspondence about his marriage to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, the births—and deaths—of their children, to the contributions of his sons and daughters to his scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … From the long letters exchanged with his sisters during the Beagle voyage, through …
Interview with John Hedley Brooke
Summary
John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … in spiritualism. He first writes to Darwin about this in 1869, and this is exactly the same time …