From William Masters   3 April 1850

Exotic Nursery | Canterburey

3 Apr 50.

Sir,

In reply to your question1 respecting the impregnation of Peas & Beans when in blossom by insects, winds &c.

Undoubtedly some varieties of Peas & Beans will naturally become impregnated with others when growing near & if each is in a similar stage of growth— Peas accidentally so impregnated have been selected from the rest & thus a new race is obtained— the dwarf blue Knights marrow was obtained in this way.—2

I have never known a whole crop to be deteriated in this manner—but individuals frequently may be seen & if not removed—in a few years by their increase would spoil the stock—

Not so in Cabbage Broccoli Sprouts—Turnips—for here impregnation is easier effected the flowers being open & the pollen abundant— it passes in Clouds & in one Season spoils so large a number as to render the Stock of no value— I have known a single plant of Red Cabbage in bloom—spoil Savoys & Cabbages & Broccolis in neighboring Gardens—and which was not found out till the year after—when mongrels of all sorts shewed themselves to the disappointment of those who sowed—& where the Exchanges of seed took place amongst the neighbors it was very unfortunate—for “all were tarred with the same brush”

I am Sir | Your obedent Servant | William Masters Charles Darwin Esqr

CD annotations

2.1 Peas … others] brown crayon cross
4.4 single plant … spoil Savoys] brown crayon cross, circled
Top of first page: ‘Author of recondite article on Pea-seeds. to which he has attended all life— Gardeners Chron— March 30/50/’ ink; ‘Cabbages’ brown crayon; ‘13’ brown crayon, circled brown crayon Verso of last page: ‘Gærtner Kenntniz 659 on Leguminosæ & Cruciferæ shedding pollen in closed flower’3 pencil, del pencil
1
CD had read Masters’s letter in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 30 March 1850, p. 198, in which he discussed variations in peas. The article is cited in Variation 2: 199–200. CD’s query was evidently concerned with breeds of cultivated plants and vegetables deteriorating after being pollinated by other varieties and species. In Notebook E, p. 98 (Notebooks), he recorded: Uncle John [Wedgwood] believes one single turnip in a garden is sufficient to spoil a bed of Cauliflower.— (How curious it would be to make inquiries of some of these great seed-growers—).—
2
Masters’s information is referred to in Variation 1: 329.
3
The copy of Karl Friedrich von Gärtner’s work on hybridisation in the Darwin Library–CUL is the 1844 edition, which does not have pages up to 659. The sense of CD’s note indicates that he was referring to Gärtner 1844, pp. 104–7, in which the shedding of pollen before the flowers open in Leguminosae and Cruciferae is discussed; these pages are annotated in pencil. Clouds of pollen, as mentioned in the letter, are discussed on p. 107; Gärtner’s experiments on fertilisation at a distance (pp. 539, 551, 573–7) are extensively annotated by CD.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1318,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1318