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 |
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 |
To J. T. Moggridge 1[7] July [1864]
Summary
Discusses dimorphism in flowers. Describes his experiments.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Traherne Moggridge |
Date: | 1[7] July [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 146: 373 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4563 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. ‘Specific difference in Primula ’: On the …
From John Scott 5 May [1864]
Summary
Encloses MS of his paper ["On individual sterility of Oncidium", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 162–7].
His next will be on Passiflora, Disemma, and Tacsonia [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 197–206].
When he receives proofs of his Primula paper he will add CD’s case about equal-styled cowslip.
Author: | John Scott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 May [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 177: 105 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4485 |
From G. C. Oxenden 4 August [1864?]
Summary
A minute black beetle visits the flowers of Epipactis grandiflora.
Author: | George Chichester Oxenden |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Aug [1864?] |
Classmark: | DAR 173: 67 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4583 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877. …
To J. D. Hooker [15 May 1864]
Summary
CD finishing Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].
Pleased at Bates’s appointment
and Wallace’s paper.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [15 May 1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 233 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4496 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. ‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria ’: On the …
To J. D. Hooker 31 [May 1864]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 31 [May 1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 235 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4516 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. Lindley, John. 1853. The vegetable kingdom; …
From C. C. Babington 6 June 1864
Summary
Cannot get any Stellaria graminea for CD. It is rare. Some, producing different kinds of flowers, once grew in Sandgate, Kent. Variations in flowers need to be re-examined.
Author: | Charles Cardale Babington |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6 June 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4521 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. Marginalia : Charles Darwin’s marginalia. …
From Henrietta Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [16 March 1864]
Summary
CD wants WED to make some measurements on mid-styled [Primula sinensis] plants.
Author: | Henrietta Emma Darwin; Henrietta Emma Litchfield |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | [16 Mar 1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 116 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3633 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. ‘Illegitimate offspring of dimorphic and …
From W. E. Darwin 18 May [1864]
Summary
Sends Pulmonaria anthers, with measurements of styles and pollen counts.
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 May [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 110: A83–6, A94 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4500 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. …
To W. E. Darwin 3 May [1864]
Summary
Thanks WED for measuring cowslip pollen. Sends dimorphic flowers.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | 3 May [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 97: A8, A10 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4480 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. ‘Illegitimate offspring of dimorphic and …
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
- … 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877. Orchids : On the various contrivances by …
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 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. ‘Illegitimate offspring of dimorphic and …
From William Marshall 12 June 1864
Summary
Informs CD of two distinct forms of Plantago lanceolata.
Author: | William Marshall |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 June 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 109: A88–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4530 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. Marshall, William. 1852. Excessive and …
From W. E. Darwin 12 May [1864]
Summary
Observations on style length of 150 flowers of Pulmonaria [angustifolia]. [See Forms of flowers, p. 105.]
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 May [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 110: A66–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4492 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. …
To J. D. Hooker 22 October [1864]
Summary
To Lyell’s chagrin, CD has come round again to A. C. Ramsay’s glacial theory.
On primrose and cowslip, CD maintains they are good species, notwithstanding Scott’s work.
CD defines species by power of remaining constant for a good long time and showing appreciable amount of difference from close species.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 22 Oct [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 252 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4642 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. Lyell, Charles. 1865. Elements of geology, …
From W. E. Darwin 18 April 1864
Summary
CD is right about variability [of Pulmonaria]. Encloses observations and diagrams of additional plants.
Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 18 Apr 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 110: A77–81b |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4466 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. …
From Robert Swinhoe 4 April 1864
Summary
Reports on a strange breed of sheep at Aden,
a Brazilian plant naturalised in Ceylon,
the Australian Casuarina equisetum spreading in Taiwan,
and an excrescence on wing of several thrushes of Taiwan similar to a growth on wing of a Syrian species.
Author: | Robert Swinhoe |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 4 Apr 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2 (Letters): 254–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4449 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Hall, Philip B. 1987. Robert Swinhoe (1836–1877), FRS, FZS, FRGS: a Victorian naturalist …
To Daniel Oliver 17 September [1864]
Summary
Glad that Oliver is to review John Scott’s paper in the Natural History Review (Scott 1864a). Apologises that his enclosed references (now missing) are so paltry.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Daniel Oliver |
Date: | 17 Sept [1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 119 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4615F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877. Ghiselin, Michael T. 1969. The triumph of …
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
- … 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877. Orchids : On the various contrivances by …
letter | (52) |
Darwin, C. R. | (26) |
Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
Darwin, W. E. | (6) |
Gray, Asa | (3) |
Oliver, Daniel | (3) |
Darwin, C. R. | (49) |
Darwin, W. E. | (14) |
Hooker, J. D. | (8) |
Scott, John | (6) |
Gray, Asa | (5) |
Darwin in letters, 1877: Flowers and honours
Summary
Ever since the publication of Expression, Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and early summer were spent completing Forms of flowers, his fifth book on a botanical topic. He then turned to the…
Matches: 28 hits
- … , Darwin’s research had centred firmly on botany. The year 1877 was no exception. The spring and …
- … from a family that the Darwins had befriended. The year 1877 was more than usually full of honours. …
- … of a very heavy shower’, William wrote on 24 August 1877 . ‘The leaves were not at all depressed; …
- … gardeners ( letter from W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 25 August 1877 ). At Down House, Darwin and …
- … a delicate twig’ ( letter to R. I. Lynch, 14 September 1877 ). Research on movement would continue …
- … of some Infusoria’ ( letter from F. J. Cohn, 5 August 1877 ). Francis’s paper eventually appeared …
- … wrote to the editor, George Croom Robertson, on 27 April 1877 , ‘I hope that you will be so good …
- … had written to the editor Ernst Ludwig Krause on 30 June 1877 , ‘I have been much interested by …
- … the German debate (letters to W. E. Gladstone, 2 October 1877 and 25 October [1877] ). …
- … and lively’ ( letter from W. E. Gladstone, 23 October 1877 ). Gifts of German and Dutch …
- … Darwin and Ernst Haeckel). Writing to Darwin on 11 March 1877 , Krause declared the journal ‘an …
- … the director, Adriaan Anthoni van Bemmelen, on 12 February 1877 : ‘I suppose that every worker at …
- … of his 70th year. Darwin was in fact 68 on 12 February 1877. Distinguished guests and …
- … & smooth as butter’ ( letter to C. E. Norton, 16 March 1877 ). Hooker was asked repeatedly by …
- … & me to dejeuner!!!’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 June 1877 ). Darwin was staying in …
- … centuries to come’ ( letter from C. C. Graham, 30 January 1877 ). Graham then gave a lengthy …
- … man and of societies’ ( letter from Marcellin de Bonnal, [1877] ). A similar complaint came from …
- … by a duke!’ ( letter to J. M. Rodwell, 3 June 1877 ). Back home, he learned from his brother that …
- … order of the day’ ( letter from E. A. Darwin, 27 January [1877] ). Carlyle’s remarks were …
- … . In a letter from an unknown correspondent on 13 June 1877 , he was criticised for having quoted …
- … monstrosity ( letter from C. T. E. Siebold, 10 October 1877 ). An American banker, William Burrows …
- … back our civilization’ ( letter from W. B. Bowles, 17 May 1877 ). Bowles proposed that such …
- … of humanity beneath’ ( letter from W. B. Bowles, 18 May 1877 ). More transitional human …
- … inflexible tails ( letter from Arthur Mellersh, 1 January 1877 ). The American physician Jesse …
- … (Trollope 1867; letter to G. J. Romanes, [1 and 2 December 1877] ). Dispute and …
- … George and Francis. He wrote to Francis on 24 September 1877 about his forthcoming work, Life …
- … value’, he confessed in a letter of 25 November 1877 that the book had ‘resolved itself into a …
- … physical’ ( letter from W. M. Moorsom, 10 September 1877 ). Darwin was doubtful of the elephant …

Photograph album of German and Austrian scientists
Summary
The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade, and contained 165 portraits of German and Austrian scientists. The work was lavishly produced and bound in blue velvet with metal embossing. Its ornate…
Matches: 7 hits
- … album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade …
- … have ever received ( Letter to Ernst Haeckel, 16 February 1877 ) …
- … the start of his 70th year, but Darwin was only 68 in 1877. Despite this oversight, the album …
- … world.— ( Letter from Leonard Blomefield, 12 March 1877 ) Familiar faces Ernst …
- … with the final album. He wrote to Darwin on 9 February 1877 : ‘what will perhaps astonish you is …
- … worth to give you ( Letter from J. V. Carus, 22 March 1877 ) The professor of …
- … scientific work. ( Letter from C. G. Semper, 26 April 1877 ) Carl Kraus, an …

1877 letters now online
Summary
Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. The transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters written to and from Darwin in 1877 are now online. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of over 600 letters written to and from Darwin in 1877 are now online. Read more about Darwin& …

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: 5 hits
- … the photograph album for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from his scientific admirers in the …
- … lasting pleasure. ( Letter to Pieter Harting, 19 March 1877 ) Harting had also written …
- … it states his ‘69th Birthday’, when in fact he was 68 in 1877. It was arranged in alphabetical order …
- … from A. A. van Bemmelen and H. J. Veth, 6 February 1877 ) Dutch correspondents …
- … ( Letter from C. W. Thomson, 30 June 1877 ) Much earlier, in 1861, Tiberius Cornelis …
German and Dutch photograph albums
Summary
Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made…

Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
Summary
On a sunny Wednesday in June 2011 in a makeshift recording studio somewhere in Cambridge, we were very pleased to welcome Terry Molloy back to the Darwin Correspondence Project for a special recording session. Terry, known for his portrayal of Davros in Dr…
Matches: 1 hits
- … tiredness of the later years (e.g. letter to E.M. Dicey, [1877] ). Working …

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
- … Letter 11074: Sayce, A. H. to Darwin, C. R., 27 July 1877 Darwin’s study of human nature …

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 …

Charles Harrison Blackley
Summary
You may not have heard of Charles Harrison Blackley (1820–1900), but if you are one of the 15 million people in the UK who suffer from hay fever, you are indebted to him. For it was he who identified pollen as the cause of the allergy. Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … grains by a dilution method. In his letter of 9 March 1877 , Darwin wrote: ‘Your calculation of …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
Darwin in public and private
Summary
Extracts from Darwin's published works, in particular Descent of man, and selected letters, explore Darwin's views on the operation of sexual selection in humans, and both his publicly and privately expressed views on its practical implications…

Exercise: Caricatures of Science
Summary
Caricatures provide intriguing insights into both ideals and transgressions of gender. The following six images show caricatured representations of nineteenth-century men and women of science. They provide insight into the boundaries of what was deemed …
Matches: 1 hits
- … Lydia Becker (1877) Caricature of Lydia Becker from …

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: 5 hits
- … | Experiment Floral studies In 1877 Darwin published a book that included a …
- … findings on floral dimorphism were eventually published in 1877, but these experiments and …
- … SOURCES Book Darwin, C. R. 1877. The different forms of flowers on plants of the …
- … experiment, the class read chapter 1 of Charles Darwin’s 1877 T he Different Forms of …
- … Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (London: John Murray, 1877), 16. [2] Ibid., 30. …

German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
Matches: 6 hits
- … (see letter from From Emil Rade , [before 16] February 1877). The poems were composed by …
- … in Rade’s account of the making of the album (Rade 1877, pp. 39–40), but the others were published …
- … Letter from Emil Rade 1 [before 16] February 1877 2 Münster i./Westf. …
- … From Emil Rade [before 16] February 1877 2 Münster i./Westf. February 1877. …
- … this letter and the letter to Emil Rade, 16 February 1877. 3. The gift was a photograph …
- … Appendix VI. A number of other poems were included in Rade 1877. …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …
Darwin as mentor
Summary
Darwin provided advice, encouragement and praise to his fellow scientific 'labourers' of both sexes. Selected letters Letter 2234 - Darwin to Unidentified, [5 March 1858] Darwin advises that Professor C. P. Smyth’s observations are not…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 11096 - Darwin to Romanes, G. J., [9 August 1877] Darwin points out a mistake made …

Natural Science and Femininity
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine thoughts, habits and feelings, male naturalists like Darwin inhabited an uncertain gendered identity. Working from the private domestic comfort of their homes and exercising…

Dipsacus and Drosera: Frank’s favourite carnivores
Summary
In Autumn of 1875, Francis Darwin was busy researching aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (F. Darwin 1876). This phenomenon occurs when coloured particles within either protoplasm or the fluid in the cell vacuole (the cell sap) cluster…
Matches: 7 hits
- … and proofreading Darwin’s second edition of Orchids (1877). By January of the following …
- … ( Dipsacus sylvestris )’ at the Royal Society on 1 March 1877 (F. Darwin 1877a). His address was …
- … and a plate of sixteen figures, was published in July 1877 in the Quarterly Journal of …
- … the journal by the end of the month ( Nature , 23 August 1877, p. 339). Although, as Darwin …
- … to his father’s beloved Drosera rotundifolia in June 1877, finding sundews that had been ‘fed’ …
- … Grant. References Darwin, C. 1877. The Contractile Filaments of the …
- … teasel ( Dipsacus sylvestris ). (Abstract.) [Read 1 March 1877.] Proceedings of the Royal …
Referencing women’s work
Summary
Darwin's correspondence shows that women made significant contributions to Darwin's work, but whether and how they were acknowledged in print involved complex considerations of social standing, professional standing, and personal preference.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 11221 - Darwin to Darwin, H., [1 November 1877] Darwin asks his sons, …
People featured in the German and Austrian photograph album
Summary
Biographical details of people from the Habsburg Empire that appeared in the album of German and Austrian scientists sent to Darwin on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Johannes Mattes for providing these details and for permission to make his…
Matches: 4 hits
- … and Austrian scientists sent to Darwin on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Johannes …
- … in Linz (1871), Vienna (1873) and Prostějov (1877). M. Pichler: Notice of death. In: …
- … of Vienna (Dr., 1873). Habilitation in palaeontology (1877) and geology (1880) at the Technical …
- … (1859), geologist (1873) and finally chief geologist (1877) and Bergrat of the Imperial …