From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
4 [Feb 1858]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 219
Summary:
Returns books by Candolle and Robert Brown.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
George Henry Kendrick Thwaites
Date:
7 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.150)
Summary:
Thanks GHKT for letter on plant acclimatisation and variation among alpine and lowland forms in Ceylon.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
9 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 223
Summary:
Six volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus confirm rule that small genera vary less than large. Labiatae an exception to rule.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
11 [Feb 1858]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 22
Summary:
Writes of domestic matters
and asks WED to observe cart-horses for traces of dark stripes on spine and cross-stripes on shoulder.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[17 Feb 1858]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 222
Summary:
General success of survey makes CD very concerned about sources of error. Wants to meet JDH for an important talk about big genera. Arranges meeting.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Jean Louis Rodolphe (Louis) Agassiz
Date:
21 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Am 1419: 279)
Summary:
Thanks LA for presentation copy of Contributions [to the natural history of the United States of America, vol. 1, pt 1: Essay on classification, and vol. 1, pt 2: North American Testudinata (1857)]. Flattered; CD sees there is much of highest interest to him.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Asa Gray
Date:
21 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (21)
Summary:
Asks whether botanists tend to record varieties more carefully in large genera or small genera.
Wants information on the ranges of varieties of a species compared to the range of the species.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Charles Cardale Babington
Date:
22 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Cambridge University Library (MS Add.8182: 20)
Summary:
CD and J. D. Hooker have differed on the following question and agreed to ask several botanists: would a good botanist describing a local flora record varieties as readily in large as in small genera?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Darwin Fox
Date:
22 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 111)
Summary:
Thanks for Hewitson [British oology].
Has found more variability in birds’ nests than he expected.
Interested in WDF’s note about turkey terrified by a frog [see Natural selection, p. 488 n.].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
23 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 224
Summary:
Fertilisation of clover by bees in New Zealand.
Uneasy about biggest genera and their varieties.
H. T. Buckle’s sophistry [History of civilisation in England (1857)].
Working on bees’ cells.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
24 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 107)
Summary:
Congratulations on birth of THH’s daughter [Jessie].
On aboriginal dun colour of horses.
Examples of inaccuracies and perpetuation of errors [on hybrids] by "compilers, of which I am one".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
27 [Feb 1858]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 23
Summary:
CD intends to enter WED at Christ’s College.
Thanks him for inquiries made about horses.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Darwin Fox
Date:
28 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 112)
Summary:
WDF’s nephew has forgotten to mention the most important element, whether the lizards’ eggs floated and stayed alive on sea-water.
Thanks for facts about turkeys and terrier [see Natural selection, p. 481 n.].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
28 Feb [1858]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 225
Summary:
JDH has confirmed CD’s opinion on the affinities of species in great genera. Is looking at large genera in several local Floras to find the "range & commonness of varying species".
Has been "beyond measure interested" in the construction instincts of the hive-bee.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
