Encloses a letter from a Mr Hill on some [unspecified] legal matter.
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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.
Encloses a letter from a Mr Hill on some [unspecified] legal matter.
Describes grafting experiment of Baron de Villa Franca, which produced new varieties of sugar-cane. Encloses related documents.
In answer to CD’s query, FM thinks the seeds he sent were those of the sensitive Mimosa.
Reports his observations of movement of leaves of Bauhinia grandiflora and B. brasiliensis. They do not "sleep" in hot weather.
Sends some seeds of Pontederia he had fertilised.
Thanks GA for his article ["The daisy’s pedigree", Cornhill Mag. 44 (1881): 168–81].
The evolutionary argument that petals are transformed stamens is "striking and apparently valid". Doubts petals are naturally yellow.
Wallace’s "generalization about much modified parts being splendidly coloured" is also dubious except as both are caused by sexual selection.
Thanks CD for letter for Villa Franca. Would be happy if CD published the Baron’s observations in an English scientific journal.
Thanks VOK for a photograph and his New Year wishes.
Asks GJR’s opinion about grafting experiments on sugar-cane carried out by the Baron [de Villa Franca].
Reports the inconclusive results of some experiments he has been doing for CD [related to plant colouring material?].
On F. M. Balfour.
Effects of ammonium carbonate on roots.
FM’s Pontederia case is very curious.
Has sold London & South Western Railway stock and has purchased Great Western stock.
Accepts GJR’s offer to prepare sugar-cane paper for publication [Villa Franca and Glass, "New varieties of sugar-cane", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1880–2): 30–1]. Suggests introduction and outline.
Agrees with GJR on microscope for Grant Allen.
Is obliged for TE’s paper on the wall lizard and another paper.
Sends subscription for Hannah Fitch.
Has read Earthworms; discusses parts and encloses a list of errata. Writes of worm-castings, describing his observations; speculates on the variation in their distribution under different conditions.
Thanks CD for financial assistance for Mr Fitch and his wife.
Advises his children as to how some money will be distributed among them.
Praises G. H. Darwin’s letter ["On the geological importance of the tides", Nature 25 (1882): 213–14] which criticises the use made of George Darwin’s views by Robert Ball ["A glimpse through the corridors of time", Nature 25 (1881): 79–82, 103–7]. JWJ argues from the fineness of Cambrian sediments against Ball’s intensification of geological forces. Massive Carboniferous river deltas also contradict Ball’s excessively high tides.
Thanks CD for Earthworms.
Discusses the problem of accounting for difference between nitrogen in permanent grassland and ordinary arable soil. Finds castings of earthworms rich in nitrogen. Asks CD if his observations enable him to explain the source. If from below top-soil, it would be a considerable manuring.
Sends his paper on the comparative anatomy of the assimilatory tissue systems of plants [Jahrb. Wiss. Bot. 13 (1882): 74–188]. This work has made clear to him how CD’s principles produce rich results when applied to plant anatomy.
Also sends a paper on the difficult problem of the gulf between cryptogamic and phanerogamic plants in the evolutionary development, in order to present another proof of the continuity of the phylogenetic development of the plant kingdom.
Thinks that "women though generally superior to men [in] moral qualities are inferior intellectually". Believes that men and women may have been aboriginally equal in this respect but that to regain equality women would have to "become as regular ""bread-winners"" as are men". Suspects the education of children and "the happiness of our homes" would greatly suffer in that case.