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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Information on Cyclamen and other plants.
Identification of some plants.
"Bloom".
AG’s review of Joseph Cook ["Lectures on biology", New Englander 37: 100–13].
Encourages CD to work at heliotropism.
Thinks Thomas Meehan is as "rattle-brained" as Joseph Cook.
[A damaged fragment cut from this letter is pinned to 11051.]
James Caird does not think Torbitt’s success justifies application to Government. Torbitt has four acres planted with seedlings. Has sent back CD’s £100. Shall CD insist that he keep it?
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.
Notes Julius Sachs’s opinion on the heliotropism of moulds: he can see no use in the response.
C. E. Stahl is working on swarm spores which can be made both helio- and apheliotropic.
Sachs has told him that some ferns sleep, and he suspects that some grasses may move.
Sachs also feels they may be working at bloom from a wrong point of view and suggests leaves may need to keep dry in order to keep their stomata open.
Sorry he was out when CD called.
Observations on insectivorous plants.
His brother Cecil is reading Coral reefs, and, as his business involves the Keeling Islands and Torres Straits, he offers to make any observations CD might want.
Thanks for congratulations on his coming birthday. Has nothing special to say as a preface to S[erbian] edition [of Origin (1878)], except to hope it is in every way successful.
Sends curious, coloured pea seeds.
Sends CD Dr Wood’s lecture on insectivorous plants.
Had no intention of antagonising CD with his observations on Linum; was anxious to account for its apparently different behaviour.
Discusses various authors’ interpretations of the structure of the embryo of grasses.
Discusses the structure of grass embryos; states differing theories regarding which part of the seed corresponds to the cotyledon.
Forwards an unspecified work for FD to read.
Sends letter and seeds from [F. J. Cohn].
Is working too hard.
On an elephant’s crying when foot was operated on.
Thanks HM for his review [of Forms of flowers, Kosmos 2 (1877–8): 286].
Thinks HM’s previous article was very important [Kosmos 2 (1877–8): 128–40]. CD will "heartily rejoice" if HM has explained the steps by which Rhamnus and Valeriana have been rendered dioecious.
Wishes to borrow third part of Fritz Müller’s article on sexual selection in butterflies [Kosmos 2 (1877–8): 218–24].
Is forwarding material on stridulation, including Prof. Wood-Mason’s paper ["Note on Mygale stridulans", Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. (1877): 281–2], which should interest CD.
The portrait of Erasmus Darwin by Wright of Derby has been dispatched.
Sends cutting on origin of variety of merino sheep.
Would like references to works on breeding.
