Thanks JDH for extract on Hedychium pollination; it shows CD’s prior interpretation was incorrect.
Showing 1–20 of 28 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 JDH for extract on Hedychium pollination; it shows CD’s prior interpretation was incorrect.
Notes that Mr[s] Barber’s communication [forwarded by CD] will be published because of more striking than usual facts ["Notes on … larva and pupa of Papilio nireus", Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. (1874): 519–21].
Encloses Thomas Belt’s address.
An account of his observations on Aldrovanda and Utricularia.
Sends CD his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beitr. Biol. Pflanz. 1 (1875) Heft 3: 71–92] in advance of publication [see Insectivorous plants, pp. 321 et seq., 395–6].
Asks JDH for leaves of Byblis and Roridula to examine, and D. Oliver for an anomalous species of Utricularia.
Sends information CD requested on phosphate of ammonia and on nitrogenous substances produced during putrefaction of animal matter.
Doubts whether sudden and great variations often occur.
Comments on colours of flowers.
Oliver will attend to his letter.
Tells of discovery and rediscovery of Aldrovanda.
Asks what CD thinks of "old Pritchard’s discourse" [C. Pritchard, Natural science and natural religion (1874)]. Does not affect evolution at all. It does affect the rather unprofitable doctrine of materialism.
His plans for the Royal Society Presidential Address.
Sends specimens of Byblis, Roridula, and Utricularia for CD’s examination.
Suggests an explanation for difference in excitability of Drosera leaves to meat and albumen on the one hand and, on the other, fibrin, areolar tissue, gelatin, and fibrous basis of bone.
Announces arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at Canterbury, New Zealand.
CD responds [to 9667] with description of his own effort to study Aldrovanda and his observations on the structure of Dionaea.
His admiration for FJC’s earlier studies of the Venus’s fly-trap.
He urges FJC to proceed promptly with publication of his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen 1, Heft 3 (1875): 71–92].
Thanks WHMC and the Astronomer Royal for informing him of the safe arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at New Zealand. [See 9677.]
Responds to CD’s questions about relation to gelatin of areolar tissue, fibrous basis of bone, and other substances CD is using in his work on digestion of Drosera.
Has been invited to lecture at the Royal Institution by Spottiswoode. Discusses subjects he might deal with and his reasons for attempting it.
Tells of a complicated case of a double sale of a living.
Huxley says F. M. Balfour passed brilliantly.
Advice to GHD on whether to accept invitation to lecture at the Royal Institution.
Murray has sent the Quarterly Review issue. CD has told Murray that he is convinced Mivart is the author and what he thinks of him.
Sends information about Indian and Australian species of Aldrovanda, Roridula, and Byblis.
Sends his observation of honey-bees gleaning after orioles had made holes in calyx of Missouri currant, while humble-bees were getting honey through the tube in the usual way.
Sends index [of Descent, 2d ed.] with instructions for proof-reading.
Asks GHD questions about heat transmission; he wants to use it as an analogy to illustrate transmission of motor impulses through leaves of Dionaea.
After a conflict with the Museum’s trustees, he has been brutally evicted from his home and office. Plans to leave Australia and asks CD’s help.
GHD explains conduction, radiation, and convection.
His paper on political economy for Royal Institution lecture has reached 60 pages. Plans to send it to Contemporary Review.