To John Edward Gray   14 January [1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

Jany. 14th

My dear Gray

You have often helped me,2 will you be so kind as to help me this time in regard to the enclosed memorandum, with Mr. Birch.3 It is my only imaginable channel by which I can ever learn anything about the varieties of our domesticated animals & plants in China.—4 Do pray use your interest for me with Mr. Birch; I could not ask myself.—

My dear Gray | Yours very truly | C. Darwin

[Enclosure]

Is there any translation of any Chinese work, ancient or modern, descriptive, or even simply enumerative, of the varieties of domestic Pigeons & Fowls or Ducks kept by the Chinese; & likewise of the Dogs, sheep, cattle &c; but I care more about the former even than the latter.— And the same in regard to the varieties of cultivated plants, but more especially of tobacco & maize; for these latter plants, the work, of course, must not be ancient.—

If any such Chinese agricultural work or Encyclopædia exists in the British Museum but has not been translated, would it be possible for Mr Birch, & would he be so very kind as to take the trouble as to look at it (& as probably saving him a little trouble) & let me be present to note down names of any varieties mentioned, if such are specified.. This would be of extreme interest to me; but I hardly know how great a favour I am asking, for Chinese seems to be so wonderfully difficult to read.—

C. Darwin

1
Dated by the relationship to subsequent letters to Samuel Birch and William Darwin Fox (see n. 4, below).
2
In particular, Gray had assisted CD in obtaining permission to borrow the British Museum’s collection of Cirripedia while CD was working on his monograph of the group (see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to J. E. Gray, [18 December 1847], 18 December 1847, and [5 or 6 February 1848]).
3
Samuel Birch was assistant keeper of the department of antiquities, British Museum. Gray was keeper of the zoological collections.
4
See letters to Samuel Birch, 6 February [1856] and [12 March 1856], and to W. D. Fox, 15 March [1856]. In both Origin and Variation, CD cited Birch as having translated for him passages from ancient Chinese, Japanese, and Egyptian texts that described breeds of pigeons and fowls. See Origin, pp. 27–8, and Variation 1: 205, 230, 238, 246 n. 33, and 247.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 helped] over ‘[me]’
3.2 domestic] interl
3.2 or Ducks] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1820A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1820A