Performed a large number of Lythrum crosses before leaving home.
Working on Drosera for amusement. Has tried effect on plants of vegetable substances active on animal nervous systems, e.g., opium; makes Drosera inactive for hours.
Showing 41–60 of 115 items
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.
Performed a large number of Lythrum crosses before leaving home.
Working on Drosera for amusement. Has tried effect on plants of vegetable substances active on animal nervous systems, e.g., opium; makes Drosera inactive for hours.
Asks DO to name enclosed Lythrum received from CD’s sister-in-law [Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood]
Has been copying out references from Natural History Review [possibly D. Oliver, "The structure of the stem in dicotyledons; being references to the literature of the subject", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 298–329].
Suggests DO study high incidence of separate sexes in freshwater plants.
Examined Epilobium 20 or 30 years ago at Shrewsbury. In a flash remembered it as dimorphic, but had forgotten its name.
Having trouble understanding laws of phyllotaxy in order to grasp Hugh Falconer’s objections.
L. C. Treviranus on Primula [see 3980] misses the "prettiness" of the adaptations.
John Scott says P. scotica is never dimorphic.
Observation on morphology of Primula ovarium sent for DO’s use.
Nectar secretion in Edwardsia. Could the stamen protect stigma?
Sends monstrous Primula with three pistils.
Had never heard of Robert Caspary, but what DO thinks is the placenta could be a whorl of pistils without stigmas.
Asks DO to give enclosed [letter?] from John Scott to Hooker.
JS’s work on orchid self-sterility; Acropera has 371250 seeds in one capsule.
Wishes something could be done for Scott.
Working on monstrous Primula. Is ovule anatropous as Asa Gray says, or amphitropous? Does he know natural path of pollen tubes in Primula. Can the tube enter the ovule by the chalaza?
Thanks for information on Primula ovules. From what DO says the pollen-tubes ought to find their way to the micropyle.
Encourages DO to publish his paper and put his name to it. [Paper apparently not published.] Concurs with his views on primordial nature of hermaphroditism.
Sends F. Hildebrand’s paper for publication by the Linnean Society or in Natural History Review.
Recommends Wyman’s short notice ["Report on Dr Jeffries Wyman’s experiment on the cause of contractility in vegetable tissues"] in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 3 (1852–7): 167.
Thanks for "multitudinous" references.
Thanks Hooker for orchids.
Fertile flowers of violets, except Viola tricolor, require insect visits.
Sends Hermann Crüger’s paper ["A few notes on the fecundation of orchids and their morphology", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 127–35] for publication.
"Boasts" of confirmation that sexes are separate in Catasetum.
Struck with corresponding positions of tendrils and flower-stalks in Passiflora. Sends [W. E. Darwin’s] dissection drawings of earliest stages. Infers that tendril is a modified flower peduncle.
Requests DO look at mode of climbing in Tecoma.
Thanks for information on Tecoma.
Cannot believe DO’s statement about Catasetum; is sure C. tridentatum sets seeds in its native country.
CD erred on Acropera, but how is it naturally fertilised?
Thanks for DO’s Lessons in elementary botany [1864].
Asks him to inquire whether there are any twining species of Passiflora.
Asks DO to draw diagram of Lythrum on board at Linnean Society for reference during the reading of CD’s paper.