If THF and James Caird [Enclosure Commissioner] approve of enclosed letter, CD will send it to Hooker.
Showing 21–40 of 76 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.
If THF and James Caird [Enclosure Commissioner] approve of enclosed letter, CD will send it to Hooker.
CD’s gardener says not to sow onion seeds until middle of March. Should he risk sowing them at once?
Believes letter from CD endorsed by JDH will virtually guarantee Government or private support for Torbitt’s experiments. Queries experimental procedure.
Caird agrees that there will be no difficulty in getting finances.
Asks CD to explain why there are hermaphrodites.
Intends to translate Origin and Descent into Bohemian to be published at Prague; asks CD’s permission to do so.
Reports on the standing of James Torbitt: "the opinion of the Public is that he is rich and highly respectable".
Has returned letter to Caird and dispatched corrected letter to Hooker [11406] [concerning potato experiments].
The strongest argument for the existence of God is the intuitive feeling that there must have been an intelligent beginner of the universe; "but then comes the doubt and difficulty whether such intuitions are trustworthy". CD is forced to leave the problem insoluble. "No man who does his duty has anything to fear, and may hope for whatever he earnestly desires."
Sends JDH a letter he has written supporting James Torbitt’s potato trials.
T. H. Farrer and James Caird think it would be less trouble to get subscription from rich agriculturists than from Government. CD thinks it utopian to hope to raise variety of potatoes from seed; must be propagated from tubers.
Has written to Farrer in support of Torbitt’s grant.
Resistance of Liberian coffee to "fly" and susceptibility to fungus.
Sends FS some specimens of harvesting ants along with the observations of their habits made by Mary Treat. If the facts are new, he believes that Mrs Treat would be gratified by their being mentioned before the Entomological Society. [See 11422.]
Will publish Origin first
and then Descent.
AS is looking for a job in a zoological museum or accompanying an expedition.
Sends MS of his paper, "On the coloration of flowers and fruits", filling a gap in CD’s theory relating to these structures, and asks for CD’s comments.
Plans a book on colour sense.
Hooker approves of Torbitt’s plan [concerning potato experiments]. Torbitt, wine and spirit merchant in Belfast, highly respectable.
Authorises publication of a Bohemian edition of Origin.
Thanks CD for specimens of, and curious facts on, the "harvesting ant".
CD gives his opinion on how the physiological laboratory at Kew should be equipped. It would be a pity if the laboratory were not supplied with as many good instruments as their funds could provide.
Talk of a subscription to help JT’s experiments. Progress of experiment; loss of fungus-resistance in varieties as they age.