From:
Edgar Leopold Layard
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[Sept–Oct 1856]
Source of text:
DAR 83: 185–6
Summary:
Preference of stallions for hybrid mares.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
5 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 9 (EH 88206458)
Summary:
Quotes passage from [Frédéric?] Gerard on distribution of certain Lepidoptera.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
James Dwight Dana
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 Sept 1856
Source of text:
DAR 205.3: 269 (Letters), DAR 162: 38
Summary:
Responds to CD’s query about the blind fauna of Mammoth Cave.
Gives information from L. Agassiz. Distribution of Crustacea, especially along southern coastlines.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
8 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 176
Summary:
Whether or not there should be movement of particles according to Tyndall’s theory of glacial action ["Observations on glaciers", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 2: 54–8, 441–3].
CD subscribes to H. C. Sorby’s view of gneiss [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].
Seed-salting.
Pigeons.
Significant differences in skeletons of domesticated rabbits.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
George Varenne Reed
Date:
8 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
Buckinghamshire Record Office (D 22/39/1)
Summary:
George is not so low at school as CD anticipated. He keeps at the top of his class, thanks to GVR’s labours.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Augustin Hubert de Bosquet
Date:
9 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.138)
Summary:
On JAHdeB’s discovery of Cretaceous Chthamalus. Cites his own acceptance of negative evidence about Chthamali in Fossil Lepadidae.
Comments on JAHdeB’s cirripede drawings.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Peter Wallace
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
10 Sept 1856
Source of text:
DAR 205.2: 261
Summary:
Reports on the naturalised animal life of Ascension.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Laurence Edmondston
Date:
11 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
L. D. Edmondston (private collection)
Summary:
Requests observations on pigeons.
Knew LE’s son [Thomas] and deplores his fate [accidental death in 1846].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
[18 Sept 1856]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
CD concerned with rabbits and ducks because evidence of their single origin is "better … than in most cases".
Death of William Yarrell.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Jean Aimé Victor (Victor) de Robillard
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
20 Sept 1856
Source of text:
DAR 205.3: 286
Summary:
C. T. Beke has communicated to the Mauritius Natural History Society a letter he received from CD. VdeR attempts to answer questions on transport of seeds by the ocean.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
21 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
States his requirements with regard to pigeons and his interest in ducks and rabbits. Inquires about poultry seen at Leith Hill.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Philip Henry Gosse
Date:
22 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Summary:
CD is working hard on variations.
Asks if PHG’s bald-pate pigeon [described in A naturalist’s sojourn in Jamaica (1851)] is a true rock-pigeon.
Can he obtain a specimen of the rabbits that have run wild, and a wild canary, and the body of any domestic or fancy pigeon which has been in the West Indies for some generations?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Asa Gray
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
23 Sept 1856
Source of text:
DAR 165: 94
Summary:
Plants that are social in the U. S. but are not so in the Old World.
Distribution of U. S. species common to Europe.
Gives Theodor Engelmann’s opinion on the relative variability of indigenous and introduced plants and notes the effects of man’s settlement on the numbers and distribution of indigenous plants.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
23 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 283: 12 (EH 88206461)
Summary:
Sends review by Quatrefages [de Bréau] of Owen’s Parthenogenesis [1849].
J. D. Dana’s congratulations on JL’s marriage.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Philip Henry Gosse
Date:
28 Sept 1856
Source of text:
The British Library (Charnwood Autographs Vol. IV Add MS 70951: 316)
Summary:
Thanks PHG for information about the bald-pate pigeon.
Will write to Richard Hill.
Can PHG remember any facts relevant to transport of animals and plants to distant islands?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
28 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 177
Summary:
Will send MS on one point of geographical distribution. It is "of infinite importance" that JDH see it, for CD has never felt such difficulty in deciding what to do.
Wants capsules of aquatic plants, to float in sea-water.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Date:
28 [Sept 1856]
Source of text:
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Summary:
Specifies pigeons in which he is interested. Has become almost more interested in rabbits than anything else.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
James Dwight Dana
Date:
29 Sept [1856]
Source of text:
Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44)
Summary:
Thanks JDD for replies to queries [in 1925]; would like to know whether teeth of cave rat are of New or Old World type.
Wishes Louis Agassiz would publish his theory of parallels of geological and embryological development. "I wish to believe but have not seen nearly enough as yet to make me a disciple."
Is working hard on variations and origin of species, but fears it will be a couple of years before he publishes.
Describes his recent work on rabbits and pigeons.
The dispersal of land Mollusca is a most difficult problem.
Confesses he is sceptical of immutability of species; discusses difficulty of proving it.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project