Showing 1–20 of 35 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.
Mentions a note in Notes and Queries [3d ser. 10 (1866): 343–4] which refers to A sketch of the life and works of Erasmus Darwin.
Requests water-lily pods to count, weigh, and to germinate some of the seeds of the crossed and uncrossed pods.
Hopes Haeckel did not bore him.
Sends his observations on sterility of Eschscholzia,
on Oxalis,
and on recently found dimorphic plants.
Sends specimen of Hedyotis [see Forms of flowers, p. 133].
Asks whether CD will add his name to a list supporting them in the "[Edward John] Eyre prosecution matter".
Left strict orders about Euryale seeds but "labour, difficulty and expense of getting anything done scientifically by practical men is untold".
The E. J. Eyre controversy [Jamaica uprising]. Odd that Huxley joins the "persecution fund". The principles involved are fiddlesticks.
Has examined TL’s crossed peas. Observes that in several lots crossed peas are smooth, like paternal stock, not wrinkled like maternal stock. Is this a result of mere variation, peculiar culture, or pollen of the father?
Encloses queries [missing].
Intends planting peas at once if TL approves.
Wants to publish his observation on colour changes in Matthiola seeds.
Has been crossing cotton.
Approves of C. V. Naudin and Max Wichura.
Arranges for distribution of new [4th] English edition of Origin in the U. S.
JVC has been asked by Schweizerbart [CD’s German publisher] to revise H. G. Bronn’s translation of Origin, and he will be pleased to try to do it.
Asks CD’s advice on what to do about Bronn’s notes and concluding chapter, with which JVC disagrees. Would CD agree to omission?
Thanks CD for copy of the Origin [4th ed.]; makes some observations on beauty and ugliness in nature.
Tells WED of a change in his will.
At CD’s request he is looking into the gardeners’ custom of separating all sweetpea varieties in order to obtain pure seed.
Expresses gratification that JVC is to undertake new translation and revision of German edition of the Origin.
Has heard many complaints about Bronn’s translation. JVC would be justified in omitting Bronn’s appendix.
Suggests additions and changes, including reference to C. W. v. Nägeli’s Entstehung und Begriff [1865], though he disagrees with it.
Has made will. Discusses financial arrangements and asks whether CD would like a mortgage.
Sends his book [Histoire naturelle des annelés marins et d’eau douce, 2 vols. (1865)].
Thanks for 4th ed. of Origin.
What a basting CD gives "our mutual friend" [Owen].
Glad he argrees with THH on Jamaica affair [Gov. Eyre and the "rebellion"].
Sends clipping about a pig that has cast its outer skin.
Identifies himself as having a year or two ago pointed out a passage from Aristotle showing that natural selection was known to the ancients.
Discusses fertilisation of peas by bees. Asks for seeds.
JVC proposes to correct Bronn’s mistakes [in his translation of Origin], but will not add his own notes.
Asks CD to write a note on Nägeli’s pamphlet [Entstehung und Begriff] for the revised edition.
Also requests biographical information for an encyclopedia article he has been asked to write.
Asks JL to look up a paper by Thomas Hincks on Polyzoa or Bryozoa [Q. J. Microsc. Sci. 2d ser. 1 (1861): 278–81].