[1]1
22d./May/642
My dear Hooker3
What a good kind heart you have got. — You cannot tell how your letter4 has pleased me. — I will write to Scott5 & ask him, if he chooses to go out & risk getting employment6 — If he will not, he must want all energy. — He says himself he wants stoicism ; & is too sensitive; I hope he may not want courage. — I feel sure he is a remarkable man with much good in him, but no doubt many errors & blemishes — I can vouch for his high intellect (in my judgment he is the best observer [2] I ever came across); for his modesty, at least in correspondence; & there is something high-minded in his determination not to receive money from me. — I shall ask him whether he can get good character for probity & sobriety. — & whether he can get aid from his relations for his voyage out — I will help, & if necessary pay the whole voyage & give him enough to support him for some weeks at Calcutta.7 I will write when I hear, — from him – [3] God Bless you, — you, who are so overworked, are most generous to take so much trouble about a man you have had nothing to do with8 —
I have about a cubic yard of books & pamphlets unread, & amongst them Naudin[']s9 late papers;10 so I can say little — all that I remember was feeling greatest doubts about rapidity & universality of Hybrids reverting to either parent-type11 — neither Gärtner12 nor Kölreuter13 found this so general & G[ärtner]. reared 8 or 10 successive generations of Hybrid [4] Dianthus14 & found them uniform in character15 — What made me doubt was that Naudin rather sneers at precautions necessary against intends insects, & he does not state that neither parent-species grew in gardens16 — I know that the first year all Gärtner's experiments were acknowledged by him to be worthless from underrating insect-agency.17 —
I have now read Wallace's paper on Man, & think it most striking & original & forcible;18 I wish he had [5]19 written Lyell's20 chapter on Man.21 I quite agree about his high-mindiness [sic], & have long thought so; but in this case it is too far & I shall tell him so. — I am not sure that I fully agree with his views about man; but there is no doubt, in my opinion, on the remarkable genius shown by the paper. — I agree, however, to the main new leading idea.22 —
You quite overrate my tendril [6] work23 & there is no occasion to plague myself about priority. By the way I observed yesterday an odd little fact, that in the vine the Flower buds are borne on a true tendril, for the whole mass of flowers steadily revolves in 2°. 15’.24 — I have almost finished my Lythrum24 paper:25 I fear it can be copied & sent only just before close of Session of Linn[ean]. Soc[iety]. & that the title alone will be read. — It really is a wondrous case; by far [the] oddest case I have ever observed.
My dear old fellow
Yours affe[ctionate]ly]. | C. Darwin26 [signature]
Following On the Origin of Species, Darwin set out to produce evidence for his theory of natural selection, initially studying plants. The spontaneous revolving habit of stems and tips in many plant groups serve to obtain light and/or support. Darwin explored the reasons for why these adaptations might have evolved and in what ways they may have been advantageous, appearing first as an essay [Darwin, C. 1865. On the movements and habits of climbing plants. Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany). 9: 1-118] and later as a book: Darwin, C. 1875. On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 2nd ed. London: John Murray.
24. Darwin included a drawing in (1865) On the movements and habits of climbing plants (see endnote 23), of what he called the ‘common peduncle’, the ‘flower-tendril’, and the ‘sub-peduncle’, or the stalk, of an inflorescence of Vitis vinifera, the common vine (p. 81). He wrote that the whole peduncle moved spontaneously, but to a lesser degree than a true vine tendril (without the flowers). He described the true tendril as making ‘two elliptical revolutions at an average rate of 2 h. 15 m.’ (p. 80).
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5333.5878)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP5333,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5333