Notes and observations on orchids.
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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.
Notes and observations on orchids.
Suggests CD try to get Lythrum hyssopifolia from France.
Dimorphic flowers.
Differences between newly opened and older orchids.
Flowers of Spiranthes and Goodyera.
Last chapter of Orchids opens up a "knotty sort of question about accident or design".
Changes in orchid flowers as they age.
Thinks CD may find trimorphism in Nesaea verticillata.
Thinks Max Müller’s Lectures on the science of language [1861–4] will do a real service to CD and natural selection.
Sends Nesaea seeds for CD
and stamps for Leonard Darwin.
AG has Cypripedium to send to CD.
Civil War and English feelings.
Flower structure of Cypripedium insigne.
Gives reference to his observations on tendrils [Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4: 98–9].
Notes cases in which the pollen of the fertilising plant affects the form of the fruit of the fertilised plant, e.g., gourds and maize.
Discusses the Civil War and the attitudes of the English press.
Has forwarded Mitchella roots and Cypripedium.
Encloses maize seeds.
Has heard of a butterfly with pollinia of Platanthera stuck to it.
Comments on AG’s notes ["Dimorphism in the genitalia of flowers", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 149–50].
"Precocious fertilisation".
Discusses the ill-will between England and U. S.
Considers the bases for deciding which plant species are "high" and which "low".
Comments on Alphonse de Candolle’s paper on oaks ["Étude sur l’espèce", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 18 (1862): 59–110].
Encloses S. H. Scudder’s letter on Lepidoptera and fertilisation of orchids which identifies a butterfly with Platanthera pollinia adhering to it. Jokingly applies natural selection to butterflies acted on by orchid pollinia.
Discusses the Duke of Argyll’s article on the supernatural [Edinburgh Rev. 116 (1862): 378–97].
Has heard that the Incas married their sisters; this may be worth investigating as a case of inbreeding.
The war is nearly finished, "rebeldom is ""gone up"" ".
Hopes CD will finish and bring out his book on variation.
AG will publish extracts of H. W. Bates’s paper on mimetic analogy [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 36 (1863): 279–94].
AG’s opinion of Lyell’s Antiquity of man.
Discusses recent correspondence in the Athenæum: the disagreement between Lyell and Hugh Falconer and Owen’s remarks on heterogeny [see 4110].
Briefly discusses orchids and some problems in phyllotaxy.
Mentions the political situation and the quarrelsome behaviour of the English.
Possible dimorphism in Phlox.
Knows of no U. S. law prohibiting marriage of cousins.
Gives references to papers on phyllotaxy.
Has extracted CD’s Linum paper [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 36 (1863): 279–84].
Elaborate co-adaptations of orchids and insects demonstrate against "chance blows", whether few, as Oswald Heer would have, or many and slight as CD proposes.
Gives some observations on Drosera.
Comments on Richard Owen’s "transmutation theory" in his aye-aye paper [Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. 5 (1866): 33–101].
Sees difficulties in adhering to the concept of design in nature.
Is surprised at Hooker’s and Daniel Oliver’s ignorance regarding spontaneous movements of tendrils.
CD should continue his work on climbing plants, "it will be fruitful in your hands".