From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
[1857?]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 187
Summary:
Will be grateful for facts from Mr Linton on numbers of eggs from goldfinch–canary crosses.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
17 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 188
Summary:
CD will advise W. F. Daniell on collecting.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
17 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 261.8: 1 (EH 88205939)
Summary:
Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.
CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
20 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 189
Summary:
CD will advise Daniell not to apply for Royal Society grant.
CD’s experiment: fish fed seeds, which germinated when voided.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[after 20 Jan 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 190
Summary:
CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.
CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.
CD’s method.
Diverging affinities in isolated genera.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
25 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 20 (EH 88206469)
Summary:
Dining with the Lubbocks.
JL’s paper on respiration of insects ["On the distribution of the tracheae in insects", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1860–2): 23–50].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Tyndall
Date:
4 Feb [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 261.8: 2 (EH 88205940)
Summary:
CD is "as ignorant of mechanics as a pig", but glaciers have interested him greatly. Hopes to hear that JT’s experiments with ice will explain the freezing together of ice below the freezing point.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
[17 Feb 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 14
Summary:
Is glad WED is in the sixth [form]. Discusses WED’s intention to become a barrister.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[6 Mar 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 146: 71
Summary:
Voting to elect JL [a member of Athenaeum].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Hugh Falconer
Date:
[7 Mar 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 144: 26
Summary:
Thinking about HF’s paper on Plagiaulax [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 13 (1857): 261–82]. Owen might answer that all Purbeck mammals are marsupials.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
15 Mar [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 193
Summary:
Separation of sexes in trees [U. S.].
Do plants offer positive evidence for "continuous land" theory?
Protean genera.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[21 Mar 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 192a
Summary:
Ranges of species in large vs small genera: Asa Gray’s compilation fits CD’s expectation.
CD studies seedling mortality in his weed garden.
JDH’s work on Indian flora.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
8 Apr [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 191
Summary:
Independence of variation from climate shown by several plant genera; CD asks for confirmation.
Progressing with book [Natural selection].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Sharpey
Date:
9 Apr [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 249: 128 (photocopy)
Summary:
Recommendations of books of general interest [for the Royal Society library]. These include [Louis] Agassiz’s works, [William] McGillivray’s [History of] British birds, and David Low’s [On the domesticated animals of the British Islands].
Comments on current candidates for the Royal Society.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
12 Apr [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 192
Summary:
Thanks JDH for response on variation. Studying variations that seem correlated with environment, e.g., north vs south, ascending mountains.
CD’s weed garden: observations on slugs killing seedlings.
Seed-salting. One-seventh of the plants of any country could be transported 924 miles by sea and would germinate.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[29 Apr 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 194
Summary:
Curative power of hydropathy.
General hairiness of alpine plants questioned: direct environmental effect.
CD has long felt JDH is too hard on bad observers.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[2 May 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 195
Summary:
JDH has shaved the hair off the alpine plant.
CD apologises for his criticism.
Apparent but false relations of plant structure to climate: heath-like foliage of all Cape of Good Hope plants.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[3 May 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 196
Summary:
JDH’s last letter demolishes woolly alpine plant theory.
Correlation of apetalous flowers and cold climate.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
13 May [1857]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 15
Summary:
Discusses family health and affairs.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
16 [May 1857]
Source of text:
DAR 114: 197
Summary:
Asks JDH’s opinion, and botanical evidence, on important law: parts that are highly developed in comparison to other allied species are very variable.
Interest in hairiness of alpine plants revived by reading A. Moquin-Tandon [Éléments de tératologie végétale (1841)]; correlation with dryness. CD seeks interpretation independent of direct environmental effect.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
