Ɛpsilon

To Gaston de Saporta   30 May 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

May 30 1874

Dear Sir

I have been very neglectful in not having sooner thanked you for your kindness in having sent me your Études sur la végétation &c, & other memoirs.1 I have read several of them with very great interest, & nothing can be more important in my opinion than your evidence of the extremely slow & gradual manner in which specific forms change. I observe that M. A. de Candolle has lately quoted you on this head versus Heer.2 I hope that you may be able to throw light on the question whether such protean or poly-morphic forms, as those of Rubus, Hieraceum &c at the present day, are those which generate new species; as for myself, I have always felt some doubt on this head.3 I trust that you may soon bring many of your countrymen to believe in evolution; & my name will then perhaps cease to be scorned—4

With the most sincere respect, | I remain | dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

P. S. I have forgotten your address, & I do not know whether you will ever receive this letter, which requires no answer.—

LS(A)

1
There is a copy of the first part of ‘Etudes sur la vegetation du sud-est de la France à l’epoque tertiaire’ (Saporta 1872–4) in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
2
CD refers to Alphonse de Candolle, Oswald Heer, and A. de Candolle 1873, pp. 11–12. Based on the evidence of the fossil record, Heer concluded that organic change happened at intervals between long periods of stasis, and that geographical isolation was a major factor in producing change.
3
Rubus is a complex genus of flowering plants in the rose family and includes raspberries and blackberries; Hieracium is the genus of hawkweed, including sunflowers. See Origin 6th ed., p. 35.
4
On the critical reception of CD’s theories in France, see J. Harvey 2008 and Tort 2008.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 , which … answer.—] in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9476,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9476