Showing 101–120 of 123 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.
Thanks WAL for specimens and observations [on scarlet runner beans]. CD is perplexed whether to account for the changes as due to simple variation or to crossing. The information will be used when he finally comes to a conclusion on the subject [see Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 151].
CD declines to write Lyell éloge [for Copley Medal] because of his ill health.
Refers to CD’s article "Fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers" in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 2: 19–25] and asks how forced beans flower in winter when no insect is on the wing.
Praises JDH’s Australian introduction.
Disputes JDH’s emphasis on SE. and SW. Australian flora.
Replies to CD’s question on whether beans in first or second year were planted near any other varieties.
Examining JDH’s list. CD struck by how many plants are common to Europe, S. America, and Australia.
Approves of WED’s moving into CD’s old rooms [at Christ’s College]. Gives fatherly advice on Cambridge’s temptation to idleness. Christmas plans.
Health poor of late.
K. E. von Baer’s view of the air bladder of fishes.
Would appreciate loan of CD’s chapter on transmigration across tropics, which may help with the difficulties of Australian distribution.
Still regards plant types as older than animal types.
The Cape of Good Hope and Australian temperate floras cannot be connected by the highlands of Abyssinia.
Wide-ranging species more "improved" than relics in small areas because they exist in large numbers and thus are subject to intense competition.
His abstract is 330 folio pages long so far.
JDH cannot abide CD’s connection of wide-ranging species and "highness". Australian flora contradicts this in many ways.
Memorial concerning British Museum collection.
Relation of Cape of Good Hope and Australian flora a great trouble. CD’s high estimation of importance of glacial period for distribution.
Responds to CD’s queries about the thickness of various geological formations. [See Origin, p. 284.]
Variations in the structure of Pelargonium flowers.
Sends WED a bank draft.
Comments and criticisms on JL’s paper [possibly: "On the development of Chloëon dimidiatum", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 24 (1863): 61–78].
Concerned about ED’s headaches, CD writes an affectionate letter.
Believes he has found a rare slave-making species of ant.
Is reading novels: Beneath the surface and Three chances.
Writes regarding CD’s query on yellow-billed cuckoo and the laying of eggs in other birds’ nests.
Cannot come to London until Tuesday. Arriving about 11: 15.
Reports his observations on an ants’ nest.
