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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.
Reports on a strange breed of sheep at Aden,
a Brazilian plant naturalised in Ceylon,
the Australian Casuarina equisetum spreading in Taiwan,
and an excrescence on wing of several thrushes of Taiwan similar to a growth on wing of a Syrian species.
Asks how he can identify pollen-tubes.
Has succeeded in impregnating orchids of widely different genera with each other’s pollinia. "Is not this something new?"
Offers to exchange Catasetum for other varieties.
Sees difficulty of placing Scott at Kew. Suspects Balfour is prejudiced because Scott is a Darwinian.
CD’s former letter on Clematis [4403] blundered; work now being revised.
Enquires about the relationship of English grains to French milligrammes.
J. H. Balfour gives Scott excellent character reference, but says he is unfit either to superintend or be subordinate.
Herbert Spencer’s review of J. M. Schleiden is interesting [see 4457].
CD has thrown away injured partridge’s foot.
Calculates the relationship between grains and milligrams; asks his mother for a fruit tart and twelve napkins.
Discusses microscopic observation of pollen tubes.
Unable to exchange orchids because of his illness.
CD apologises for having asked JDH to help him with Scott and now seeks advice on how to break the news.
CD need not worry about having discarded the partridge’s foot.
Men of Scott’s Celtic temperament are very troublesome. Tries to dissuade CD from hiring him as a scientific gardener.
George Rolleston, not Spencer, wrote review of Schleiden [Nat. Hist. Rev. (1864): 187–99].
Lyell thinks an expedition should be sent to the caves in Borneo, supported by the sale of surplus specimens; thinks "our progenitors" may well be there.
Regrets that JS has left the [Edinburgh] Botanic Garden and that [J. D.] Hooker is not in a position to secure a foreign appointment for him. Offers financial assistance on the grounds of science.
Has sent JS a copy of the Reader.
Thanks for Lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy [1864].
If Owen wrote article on "Oken" [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.] and French work on archetype he never did a baser act [see ML 1: 246 n.].
Bad health lately.
The signatories warn the RHS that in offering prizes for collections of specimens of wild English plants, the Society will cause serious injury to varieties already threatened without any real promotion of scientific botany.
Thanks LA for Methods of study [1863].
Is gratified that he has not taken a personal dislike to CD, though he is strongly opposed to nearly everything CD has written.
Instructions concerning the payment of the principal and interest of the mortgage to Mr Childe.
CD has told Scott not to hope for help from JDH.
Health improving.
Hopes to write Lythrum paper soon.
Observations on [length of style and length of filament and stigmas of] Pulmonaria.
Thanks for CD’s consoling letter. His mind cannot concentrate after losing his position, and he feels "an inward dread of life’s future". Would have been glad to work for CD. Understands why Hooker cannot recommend him.