CD has begun seed-salting experiments. Wants JDH to write which seeds he expects to be easily killed [in salt water].
CD’s idea that coal-plants lived in salt water like mangroves made JDH savage.
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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.
CD has begun seed-salting experiments. Wants JDH to write which seeds he expects to be easily killed [in salt water].
CD’s idea that coal-plants lived in salt water like mangroves made JDH savage.
Pea self-fertilisation: has forty-five varieties growing side by side.
Describes seed-salting experiments: e.g., immersion in tank filled with snow. Reports some successful germinations.
Made list of naturalised plants from Asa Gray’s Manual [of Botany] to calculate the proportions of the great families.
Rejects JDH’s suggestion that seed-salting experiments be conducted on huge scale. Only wishes to demonstrate possibility of sea transport, not establishment of any particular insular flora. More seed results.
More on seed-salting. JDH’s admission that he expected seeds to die in a week gives CD "a nice little triumph".