Showing 21–40 of 55 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.
Returned last night. Huxley, left at Baden Baden, remarkably well.
Would like to come to Down with Strachey.
Starts tomorrow for visit to Farrer and Effie [Euphemia Farrer, daughter of Hensleigh Wedgwood]. Has not done such a feat [i.e., staying as a guest of someone outside the immediate family?] for 25 years.
Has been half killing himself with Drosera.
Asks JDH why so many plants are protected by a thin layer of waxy matter or with fine hairs.
Wrote to John Smith for a plant of Oxalis sensitiva, but it has not acted well.
Rejoices over Ayrton’s retirement. Hopes W. P. Adam, his successor, is a good sort of man.
Has observed CD’s points. Except for leaves of Nelumbium, would have supposed both wax and hairs were connected with absorption or respiratory functions. May subserve some function connected with rays of sun. Watering most prejudicial in the hot sun: a splendid subject for experiments.
Adam is a good man.
Asks JDH to inquire of gardeners at Kew what they think about injury to plants from watering during sunshine. Wishes to experiment. He is already convinced that drops of water do not act as burning lenses.
He and Strachey will arrive on Saturday.
Is aghast at thought of being questioned on injury to plants by watering. Fears he will be considered an ignorant Director of Kew.
Will arrive at Orpington by usual train.
Identifies three plants sent by CD.
Thanks JDH and Thiselton-Dyer for useful information.
Is surprised Mimosa albida is not sensitive to water. Asks that they try again, or lend it to him.
Remembers a walk in Brazil in great bed of Mimosa.
After JDH left, CD was very bad, with much loss of memory and severe shocks continually passing through his brain.
Mimosa too far gone to send now.
CD’s marjoram is the common [Origanum] vulgare, not the pot herb.
On the water injury, Thiselton-Dyer and he may have used too fine a spray, but plant is insensitive.
Horribly angry at P. G. Tait’s letter in Nature [8 (1873): 381–2].
Tyndall writes that he is strong – the next number of Nature will prove it.
G. Henslow is much better.
JDH leaves for Bradford [BAAS meeting] tomorrow.
Rejoices at CD’s success with Drosera; longs to be at Nepenthes.
Obliged for information on Mimosa albida; if a vigorous plant behaves as JDH says, CD’s notions are all knocked on the head.
Anxious to read Tyndall’s answer to Tait [Nature 8 (1873): 399].
Drosera story too long for his strength. Essentially the leaves act just like stomach of an animal.
Burdon Sanderson will give some grand facts at BAAS about Dionaea.
Offers to help JDH with Nepenthes experiments. Finds experimental work always takes twice as much time as anticipated.
Thanks for C. E. Norton’s address.
Tyndall’s answer [Nature 8 (1873): 399] has surprised and disappointed him;
great trouble in announcing Tyndall’s election as President Elect [of BAAS] yesterday. Tyndall may throw up the Presidency. Spottiswoode and JDH have concocted a letter telling him the facts.
A very poor dull meeting. Comments on papers by W. C. Williamson, Clerk Maxwell, David Ferrier, Burdon Sanderson [Rep. BAAS 43: lxx–xci, 23–32,126–7, 131–3].
Has heard Huxley is back quite well.
Had read Tyndall’s letter [Nature 8 (1873): 399] – awfully savage, but certainly a great mistake to print it.
Thinks JDH will think better of Clerk Maxwell’s paper after he reads it.
Asks whether JDH could find out for him the temperature of rain in very hot countries.
Mimosa prostrata, described by John Lindley as M. marginata, native of Brazil.
Who supplies CD with distilled water and chemicals?
Hopes to get another species of Desmodium from Mr Rollisson.
Lists plants in which he is interested, including Neptunia and Mimosa species.
Do any strictly tropical plants have glaucous leaves?
Asks for observations on irritable plants.
Describes work on Nepenthes – more difficult than Drosera.
Has written to Dublin for a Drosophyllum.
Neptunia is evidently a hopeless case.
Good news that fluid of Nepenthes is acid.
No discovery ever gave him more pleasure than proving a true act of digestion in Drosera.
Has become profoundly interested in Desmodium. Asks whether Frank [Darwin] can look over the whole dried collection of the genus.
Has JDH any seed of Lathyrus nissolia?
Suggests experiments to try [with Nepenthes].
Asks JDH to test whether cabbage seeds and peas exposed to the ferment germinate.
Cancel: same as 9523.
Describes his experiments on Nepenthes; finds action analogous to that in Drosera.
