From:
Dorothy Fanny Walpole; Dorothy Fanny Nevill
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[16? May 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 172.1: 25
Summary:
Thanks CD for his book [Orchids].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Chichester Oxenden
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
15 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 173.2: 48
Summary:
Thanks for the book [Orchids].
Found thousands of Ophrys aranifera plants.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Bentham
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
15 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 160.1: 152
Summary:
Thanks CD for his book [Orchids]. CD has opened a new field for observation and a new unexpected track to explore phenomena that had before appeared "irreconcilable with ordinary opinion and method shown in the organic world".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Georgina Tollet
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
17 May [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 178: 128
Summary:
Thanks for Orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[18 May 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 154
Summary:
Leschenaultia seems very odd. Will try with pollen left on for 48 hours. Illustrates diversity of structures for same purpose.
Bentham’s and Oliver’s good opinion of Orchids is reassuring.
Anxious to experiment on Melastomataceae; thinks it will give important results.
Wants Leschenaultia formosa to try whether viscid outside surface can be fertilised.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Asa Gray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
18 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 165: 109
Summary:
Has received first sheets of Orchids and is very impressed. "What a skill & genius you have for these researches."
Details of U. S. orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Heinrich Georg Bronn
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
19 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 160.3: 321
Summary:
Thanks for revisions in 2d ed. of Origin. Suggests correction regarding species numbers in the Tertiary.
Comments on pages of Orchids and problems of German translation.
Believes CD’s theory not yet proven, but that it will finally lead to truth.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Henry Holland, 1st baronet
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
19 May [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 166.2: 242
Summary:
Thanks for Orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Edward Cresy, Jr
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
19 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 161.2: 239
Summary:
Comments on presentation copy of Orchids: bee Ophrys self-fertilisation; origin of nectar; odour of orchids. Book gives strong cases for special creationists.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Henry Walter Bates
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
19 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 160.1: 69
Summary:
Miocene glacial period a remarkable discovery; if it is true, enlargement of Tertiary period necessary.
Received German monograph on Chilean Carabi that does not answer where isolated species came from.
HWB finds genital modifications of Chrysomela strong support for the theory.
Thanks for copy of Orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Cardale Babington
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
22 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 160.1: 3
Summary:
Thanks for copy of Orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 101: 36
Summary:
Does not know Rhododendron boothii; is sending Rhododendron keysii, a remarkable form. Will send Melastomataceae anon.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Alfred Russel Wallace
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 106/7 (ser. 2): 2–3
Summary:
Acknowledges Orchids with its disclosures of "wonderful adaptations".
Warns that CD aids critics by overstating the difficulties.
Did Owen write the article in the Quarterly Review? [Review of Origin by Samuel Wilberforce, Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Beete Jukes
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 168: 90
Summary:
JBJ explains his theory of atmospheric denudation of Irish river valleys, to be published [as "On the river valleys in the south of Ireland", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): 378–403], and suggests its application to the Weald. This slow process would make the Weald far older than CD’s 300 million years.
Thanks for Orchids.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Chichester Oxenden
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
26 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 173.2: 49
Summary:
Reminisces about Andrew Knight, whom he knew as a young man.
Praises Orchids for its "analogies of Creation".
Will send lizard orchid.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Leonard Jenyns; Leonard Blomefield
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
28 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 168: 57
Summary:
Pleased with CD’s opinion of the Henslow Memoir [L. Jenyns, Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow (1862)]
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[29 May 1862]
Source of text:
DAR 101: 37
Summary:
Sends two flowers of Vanilla and two Melastomataceae.
Has worked on Cameroon list ["Mountain flowering plants and ferns of the Cameroons", in Burton, Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains (1863) 2: 270–7]
and Genera plantarum.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
30 May [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 152
Summary:
Has received Melastoma and Vanilla.
Has seen again the two sets of plants of Heterocentron raised from two lots of pollen from same flower – a marvellous difference in stature.
"But oh Lord what will become of my book on variation: I am involved in a multiplicity of experiments."
Observations on Viola.
CD’s fancied dimorphism of Oxalis is all a confounded mistake; only great variability in length of pistils.
Found Henslow’s life [L. Jenyns, Memoir of the Rev. J. S. Henslow (1862)] interesting but fears the public will think it dull.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Chichester Oxenden
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
30 May [1862]
Source of text:
DAR 173.2: 50
Summary:
Awaits instructions for sending lizard orchid.
Asks for a coloured plate of Malaxis paludosa so that he can find specimens for CD.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
George Dickie
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
30 May 1862
Source of text:
DAR 162.2: 178
Summary:
Reports observations on Listera cordata in accordance with CD’s wishes.
Agrees with what CD says about adaptations [in Orchids, p. 28–31], but cannot comprehend how they can be explained by natural selection.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project