To Japetus Steenstrup   16 October [1851]

Down Farnborough Kent

Oct. 16th.

My dear Sir

I beg to thank you most sincerely for your magnificent group of your Xenobalanus globicipitis. It so happens that I received a year ago some specimens taken from off a Porpoise north of Madeira,1 & was particularly interested in making out the same affinity to Coronula, as you specify.— From its affinity, also, to Tubicinella, I had called it in M.S. Siphonicella, & unfortunately have so referred to it in my volume going through the press, & in Lyells anniversary address to the Geolog. Soc. of London published last year.2 But as my name was not accompanied with a description, (only its affinities being mentioned) it has no authority. Will you kindly inform me soon where your name Xenobalanus is published,3 that I may put this name in the Corrigenda to my volume?—4

I am, also, much obliged for Reinhardts Paper on the Lithotrya;5 unfortunately I cannot read it, but the Plate is so good that it tells its own story, & first led me to understand the process of boring in Lithotrya.—6

You will, I hope, before this have received back all your valuable fossil specimens. Believe, I shall always feel grateful for the kind confidence you have reposed in me. As soon as my volume is published I will send you a Copy.—7

With sincere respect | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin

May I present some of the specimens of the XenoBalanus to the British Museum?

1
These specimens were sent to CD by Richard Thomas Lowe, chaplain on Madeira (Living Cirripedia (1854): 439).
2
Living Cirripedia (1851): 156 n. Charles Lyell referred to CD’s new genus of Siphonicella in C. Lyell 1851b, p. lxvii.
3
Steenstrup’s first published description of Xenobalanus globicipitis was given at the end of a paper on another topic (Steenstrup 1851, p. 62) and included a plate. He evidently sent this to CD for it is cited in Living Cirripedia (1854): 440. Steenstrup gave a full description of the new species in Steenstrup 1852.
4
In the corrigenda and addenda in Living Cirripedia (1851): xii, CD stated: ‘I now find that this species has been called, by Professor Steenstrup, Xenobalanus globicipitis.’ In Living Cirripedia (1854): 438, CD used Steenstrup’s name for the genus, giving his own name, Siphonicella, as a synonym.
5
Reinhardt 1850, published in Danish in the same journal as Steenstrup 1851 (see n. 3, above).
6
CD had previously corresponded with Albany Hancock concerning the boring powers of Lithotrya (see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to A. Hancock, 29 September [1849], [29–30 October 1849], 25 December [1849], and [26 January – March 1850]). CD believed that the basal scales in the peduncle of this genus were adapted for mechanical burrowing. See Living Cirripedia (1851): 336–8, 344–8. CD referred at length to Reinhardt 1850 on p. 346 n., pointing out that his and Johannes Theodor Reinhardt’s view of the means of burrowing were essentially the same.
7
CD here refers to Living Cirripedia (1851), not Fossil Cirripedia (1851), which he had already sent to Steenstrup (letter to J. J. S. Steenstrup, 9 September [1851]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 so] after del illeg
1.2 some] over ‘a’
1.7 to the Geolog. Soc. of London] interl
1.9 soon] interl
2.2 first] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1459,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1459