From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Frances Harriet Henslow; Frances Harriet Hooker
Date:
3 Apr [1873]
Source of text:
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (JDH/2/2/1 f. 309)
Summary:
Thanks for present of
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 1–20 of 41 items
Thanks for present of
Asks for details about microscope parts.
Wants FD to ask Hooker for species of Desmodium; CD believes he has found new movements.
Also ask whether Hooker has Drosophyllum.
Hopes to get another species of Desmodium from Mr Rollisson.
Lists plants in which he is interested, including Neptunia and Mimosa species.
Do any strictly tropical plants have glaucous leaves?
Asks for observations on irritable plants.
Discusses experiments and observations on pitchers [of Nepenthes]. Suggests procedures for JDH to follow.
Any plant of any family with a terminal or with any lateral leaflets greatly reduced would be interesting to CD for studying spontaneous movements.
Has not received Eucalyptus or Acacia plants from Rollisson.
Suggests experiment and observations to carry out on pitcher [of Nepenthes].
Is coming to stay in London and wants to arrange a visit to Kew to talk with JDH, see the Eucalypti, and observe Mimosa albida.
Wishes to identify a species of Cassia whose movements interest him.
Concerning secretion of "bloom";
movements of Robinia.
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JDH writes to Asa Gray about his work on Pinus, including the nomenclature & synonymy of various species, including P. edulis, P. fremontia, P. llaveana, P. cembroides, P. perryana, P. chihuahuana, P. tuberculata, P. insignis & P. torreyaan. He has begun working on Oaks & finds them even more confusing. JDH has received Gray's letter of 4 June & bag of Torreya seeds. Mentions a Wardian Case of Sikkim Rhododendrons, [part of the letter following this mention is missing]. JDH refers to some RBG Kew staff & mentions that he pays his wife £100 per annum for working 4, 4 hour, days a week. JDH has been elected the new President of the Royal Society over Spottiswoode & the Duke of Devonshire. JDH has reservations about Gray's plans to employ a German Professor, he suggests an American or Swiss man would be better. William Thiselton-Dyer would not take the job as Professor, he has been offered lucrative positions abroad before but is determined to stay in Britain. The following day JDH will go to Cheshire to visit Mr Tollemache, who is an intimate friend of William Gladstone & previously brought Gladstone to visit RBG Kew.
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JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending him some boxes of roots. He has received useful information regarding North American Pines from George Engelmann, whom he wishes would also study American oaks. Mentions: a case of Sikkim Rhododendrons for H. Hunnewell, death of John Torrey, sending Bolander subtropical plants including hardier palms. Some boxes from Gray arrived smashed, some things were lost possibly including the Pinguicula & Chaptalia. JDH owes Charles Sprague Sargent a letter. Ashes are hopeless, the arboretum has been hard work the past winter. JDH will go to France with Thomas Henry Huxley [THH] who has been recommended a holiday for his health. George Bentham is working on Mimosas for Martius' Flora. William Thiselton-Dyer is to withdraw from the Horticultural Society & give a series of lectures on botany at South Kensington for the National School teachers. JDH explains what form the lectures will take, they are modelled after THH's zoology lectures. JDH has been unwell but is recovered & has resumed work on the Vaccineae for GENERA PLANTARUM. Welwitsch affair not yet settled. Owen's wife has died. The Royal Commission will recommend that RBG Kew become the national herbarium with a separate Paleontological one at the British Museum [of Natural History].