From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
12 Apr 1847
Source of text:
DAR 47: 156–9
Summary:
[Copy made by CD’s amanuensis.] Discusses the rarity of intermediate forms.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[after 24 July 1861]
Source of text:
DAR 47: 162
Summary:
Gives CD an instance of facts that can be read either way as to whether a plant (Veronica humifusa) is a species or a variety.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[16 May 1864]
Source of text:
DAR 142: 94
Summary:
Cover containing some seeds mentioned in the letter to H. C. Watson, 28 May [1864], f.2 (S 4512).
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[19 Nov 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 402
Summary:
In response to CD’s query, HCW says he cannot supply "any list of species as the flora of a single and sterile soil". Suggests a possible source of information, and provides some figures for Britain, but these apply to diverse soils.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
20 Nov [1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.4: 101
Summary:
Sends a count of the number of species of flowering plants and ferns on the islands of Fayal and Flores in the Azores.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
11 July [1855]
Source of text:
DAR 181: 27
Summary:
Returns CD’s list of Azores plants with information on the distribution of the species added. Encloses a list, extracted from CD’s list, of those plants common to Europe and the Azores that were probably not introduced by man.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
13 Aug 1855
Source of text:
DAR 98: A5–A6, DAR 9: 15A
Summary:
Is having difficulties marking close species on the list of British plants.
In all his attempts to advance geographical botany he is stopped by the "application and signification of the word ""species"" " the use of which is both "indefinite and variable". He encloses his list of "Categories of Species".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
17 Aug 1855
Source of text:
DAR 181: 28
Summary:
Sends a catalogue of plants [missing] with the close species marked.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 Aug 1855
Source of text:
DAR 181: 29
Summary:
Close species in large and small genera.
Artificiality of botanical classification.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
2 Oct 1855
Source of text:
DAR 181: 30
Summary:
Expresses his general opinion on the relative closeness of species in large and small genera. Warns that the size of a genus is dependent upon the locality and extent of the flora studied, that definitions of close species are not consistent, and that peculiarities of botanical classification will influence any attempt to assess the comparative closeness of species in different genera.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
11 Oct 1855
Source of text:
DAR 47: 163a–b
Summary:
Sends London catalogue of British plants with close species marked.
Charges E. Forbes with fraudulent appropriation of others’ work.
Comments on, and cites possible cases of, CD’s imagined rule that individuals of one or more species in a genus vary in some of those characters by which the species of that genus are distinguished.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 Nov 1855
Source of text:
DAR 181: 31
Summary:
Artificiality of orders and genera in botany.
Difficulties in numerical analysis of close species in large and small genera.
HCW has "pretty strong bias towards the view that species are not immutably distinct".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[after 23 Mar 1858]
Source of text:
DAR 45: 16–17
Summary:
Extracts from MS of vol. 4 of HCW’s Cybele Britannica [1847–59] showing the diversity of views on species among botanists.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
5 June 1856
Source of text:
DAR 181: 32
Summary:
Answers CD’s questions about plants common to U. S. and Britain and their distribution in Europe.
Variability of agrarian weeds.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 June 1856
Source of text:
DAR 181: 33
Summary:
Evidence relevant to E. Forbes’s land-bridge theory.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
20 June 1856
Source of text:
DAR 181: 34
Summary:
Conveys [? J. T. I. Boswell-]Syme’s opinion of variability of agrarian weeds and ranges of species common to U. S. and W. Europe. The Hispano-Hibernian connection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 Nov 1856
Source of text:
DAR 205.3: 296
Summary:
Greatly interested in CD’s experiments with seeds in salt water [see "Action of sea-water on seeds", Collected papers 1: 264–73]. Believes CD exaggerates the force of the objection, against migration, that seeds tend to sink.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
19 Nov 1856
Source of text:
DAR 98: A7–A10
Summary:
Discusses means of seed transport.
Considers the difficulty of deciding which, if any, botanical species are real.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
26 Nov 1856
Source of text:
DAR 207: 19
Summary:
Responds to CD’s query on Subularia and Limosella. There are discrepancies among authorities on whether Subularia flowers out of water. Limosella certainly flowers out of water.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hewett Cottrell Watson
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[28 Dec 1856]
Source of text:
DAR 98: A15–18
Summary:
Notes on the comparative rarity of intermediate forms between species, and the varying relationships those forms may have to one or both species between which they are intermediate.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
