Comments on possibility of transport of seeds of Arctic plants by ice.
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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.
Comments on possibility of transport of seeds of Arctic plants by ice.
CD’s tabulation of colonists curious but explicable.
Working on Tasmanian flora; contemplating general essay on Australian distribution: Tasmania and Australia same alpine species; Swan River flora very peculiar and quite distinct from New South Wales.
Trying to establish new journal at Linnean.
Discusses WED’s affairs and events at Down.
Writes of the benefits of reading.
Hybrid insects.
Description of the Salvages.
Variability of "transition groups" of insects; relation of variability to ranges of insects. The variability of wings, even within species. Reduction of flying ability on isolated islands.
Forbes’s "Atlantis" theory and insect fauna of the Atlantic islands, considered with regard to insect migrations.
Comparison of skulls of Ichthyosaurus and Cetacea.
Latitude overrules everything in distribution. Alpine distributions are like insular. Tabulating proportions.
T. V. Wollaston’s Madeira insects: many flightless, thus not blown to sea. TVW’s insects do not confirm Forbes’s Atlantis.
JDH criticises C. J. F. Bunbury’s paper on Madeira [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 1 (1857): 1–35].
Absence of Ophrys on Madeira suggests to JDH a sequence in creation of groups.
Why are flightless insects common in desert?
Australian endemism.
Is trying to procure some cocks for CD.
Believes Scotch deerhounds are mongrels.
Acknowledges a list [of plants?].
Looks forward to new edition [of British plants growing wild in the parish of Hitcham, Suffolk, 2d ed. (1855)].
JSH should not trouble about Anacharis until he is less busy. Will send cirripedes.
Thanks JSH for Anacharis which is flourishing.
P. H. Gosse told him he had several sea animals and algae living in artificial sea-water for over 13 months.
The new pigeon house is nearly complete.
CD is busy trying all sorts of experiments on salting seeds.
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.
Responds to CD’s questions about mountain vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope. The distribution of some plants provides problems for both migration and special creation hypotheses.
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".
Praise for JL’s interesting paper ["On the freshwater entomostraca of South America", Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. n.s. 3 (1854–6): 232–46].
Discusses installation of watering system. Sent question to Gardeners’ Chronicle but, through EC’s kindness, superfluously.
JDH to be appointed Assistant Director at Kew.
On where to publish seed-salting paper. Floating problem perhaps more important than germination.
CD upset because salted seeds do not float.