Writes to ask how much he should subscribe to fund for David Ferrier.
Writes to ask how much he should subscribe to fund for David Ferrier.
Hopes WPS may succeed with a new edition of his book [see 13495]. WPS saw so much more of the natives of Tierra del Fuego than did CD and his opinion of them is probably right.
Discourages him from visiting.
Rows of cells with granular matter following treatment with carbonate of ammonia also found in white and young rootlets of common zonal Pelargonium. Differs slightly from Euphorbia in that 2, 3, 4, or 5 rows often adjoin. CD wrong in supposing that these rows of cells were connected with lacticiferous ducts ("milk-tubes"). Root hairs arise exclusively from rows of cells without brownish granular matter. It appears that certain rows of cells with hairs are absorbent and store matter of some kind. This is a new view of the structure and function of rootlets. Francis Darwin will soon set up the salt solution to make the experiment SHV recommends.
Discusses milk ducts in Euphorbia [spurge].
Sends copies of Variation, Descent, and Journal of researches from "the library of my late brother".
Thanks him for magnificent work on Pycnogonida [The zoology of the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger, vol. 3, part 10 (1881)].
Is delighted that he is undertaking the Cirripedia [1883–4].
At Mrs Lyell’s request, passes on a spare copy of K. M. Lyell ed. 1881.
Reports observing two wheat flowers that bent towards each other and pressed together in a "quick throbbing motion".
Will observe the granular cells in roots, to investigate CD’s observation that root-hairs spring from cells that are not granular. Hopes they may be soluble in [carbonate of ammonia] solution.
Concerning French translation of Earthworms
and Movement in plants.
Last issue of Nature has made him "awfully proud". [See R. S. Ball, "A glimpse through the corridors of time", Nature 25 (1881): 79–82.]
Sends some additions and corrections he has made in the 5th thousand, [of Earthworms] now being printed.
Describes experiment in which Euphorbia and Drosophyllum roots were exposed to ammonium carbonate solution. Asks SHV’s opinion.
Has no objection to Édouard Heckel’s preface to the French translation of Movement in Plants.
Sends some additions for the French translation of Earthworms.
Wouls like a copy of the French translation of Movement in Plants sent to Gaston de Saporta, Charles Frédéric Martins and Charles Victor Naudin.
Writes regarding subscription to set up the Science Defence and Advancement Fund to protect investigators from anti-vivisectionists and to promote knowledge of the purpose and importance of vivisection.
Offers for sale a MS of lost Erasmus Darwin poem on materialism [Francis Darwin note: "Swindle"].
Thanks CD for support in his election as Linacre Professor at Oxford.
J. Y. Buchanan, of the Challenger, says deep-sea red mud is fine because, like CD’s vegetable mould, it has been digested by worms and echinoderms.
Visited by John MacNeile Price, the son of CD’s friend from Chile, Mr Price; the son is now Surveyor General of Hong Kong.
Regrets that he cannot write the requested journal article on comparative anatomy.
Hopes EFG pursues more worthy object than collecting autographs.
An enclosure for CD has arrived from the Academy of Sciences in Vienna: please can CD send a postal order for 4s.