More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I [252]
to be arrested," etc. He gives as instances (so I suppose there are other cases) eleven species, viz., 3. Rumex, Poterium sanguisorba, Potentilla anserina, Medicago sativa, Taraxacum officinale, Marrubium vulgare, Plantago lanceolata, P. major, Lolium perenne. All these are seeding freely. Now I remember, years and years ago, your discussing with me how curiously easily plants get naturalised on uninhabited islands, if ships even touch there. I remember we discussed packages being opened with old hay or straw, etc. Now think of hides and wool (and wool exported largely over Europe), and plants introduced, and samples of corn; and I must think that if Australia had been the old country, and Europe had been the Botany Bay, very few, very much fewer, Australian plants would have run wild in Europe than have now in Australia.
The case seems to me much stronger between La Plata and Spain.
Nevertheless, I will put in my one sentence on this head, illustrating the greater migration during Glacial period from north to south than reversely, very humbly and cautiously. (343/4. "Origin of Species," Edition I., page 379. Darwin refers to the facts given by Hooker and De Candolle showing a stronger migratory flow from north to south than in the opposite direction. Darwin accounts for this by the northern plants having been long subject to severe competition in their northern homes, and having acquired a greater "dominating power" than the southern forms. "Just in the same manner as we see at the present day that very many European productions cover the ground in La Plata, and in a lesser degree in Australia, and have to a certain extent beaten the natives; whereas extremely few southern forms have become naturalised in any part of Europe, though hides, wool, and other objects likely to carry seeds have been largely imported during the last two or three centuries from La Plata, and during the last thirty or forty years from Australia.')
I am very glad to hear you are making good progress with your Australian Introduction. I am, thank God, more than half through my chapter on geographical distribution, and have done the abstract of the Glacial part...
LETTER 344. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, March 30th, 1859.
Many thanks for your agreeable note. Please keep the geographical MS. till you hear from me, for I may have to beg you to send it to Murray; as through Lyell's intervention I hope he will publish, but he requires first to see MS. (344/1. "The Origin of Species"; see a letter to Lyell in "Life and Letters," II., page 151.)
I demur to what you say that we change climate of the world to account for "migration of bugs, flies, etc." WE do nothing of the sort; for WE rest on scored rocks, old moraines, arctic shells, and mammifers. I have no theory whatever about cause of cold, no more than I have for cause of elevation and subsidence; and I can see no reason why I should not use cold, or elevation, or subsidence to explain any other phenomena, such as distribution. I think if I had space and time I could make a pretty good case against any great continental changes since the Glacial epoch, and this has mainly led me to give up the Lyellian doctrine as insufficient to explain all mutations of climate.
I was amused at the British Museum evidence. (344/2. This refers to the letter to Murchison (Letter 65), published with the evidence of the 1858 enquiry by the Trustees of the British Museum.) I am made to give my opinion so authoritatively on botanical matters!...
As for our belief in the origin of species making any difference in descriptive work, I am sure it is incorrect, for I did all my barnacle work under this point of view. Only I often groaned that I was not allowed simply to decide whether a difference was sufficient to deserve a name.
I am glad to hear about Huxley--a wonderful man.
LETTER 345. TO J.D. HOOKER. Wells Terrace, Ilkley, Otley, Yorkshire, Thursday [before December 9th, 1859].
I have read your discussion (345/1. See "Introductory Essay," page c. Darwin did not receive
The case seems to me much stronger between La Plata and Spain.
Nevertheless, I will put in my one sentence on this head, illustrating the greater migration during Glacial period from north to south than reversely, very humbly and cautiously. (343/4. "Origin of Species," Edition I., page 379. Darwin refers to the facts given by Hooker and De Candolle showing a stronger migratory flow from north to south than in the opposite direction. Darwin accounts for this by the northern plants having been long subject to severe competition in their northern homes, and having acquired a greater "dominating power" than the southern forms. "Just in the same manner as we see at the present day that very many European productions cover the ground in La Plata, and in a lesser degree in Australia, and have to a certain extent beaten the natives; whereas extremely few southern forms have become naturalised in any part of Europe, though hides, wool, and other objects likely to carry seeds have been largely imported during the last two or three centuries from La Plata, and during the last thirty or forty years from Australia.')
I am very glad to hear you are making good progress with your Australian Introduction. I am, thank God, more than half through my chapter on geographical distribution, and have done the abstract of the Glacial part...
LETTER 344. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, March 30th, 1859.
Many thanks for your agreeable note. Please keep the geographical MS. till you hear from me, for I may have to beg you to send it to Murray; as through Lyell's intervention I hope he will publish, but he requires first to see MS. (344/1. "The Origin of Species"; see a letter to Lyell in "Life and Letters," II., page 151.)
I demur to what you say that we change climate of the world to account for "migration of bugs, flies, etc." WE do nothing of the sort; for WE rest on scored rocks, old moraines, arctic shells, and mammifers. I have no theory whatever about cause of cold, no more than I have for cause of elevation and subsidence; and I can see no reason why I should not use cold, or elevation, or subsidence to explain any other phenomena, such as distribution. I think if I had space and time I could make a pretty good case against any great continental changes since the Glacial epoch, and this has mainly led me to give up the Lyellian doctrine as insufficient to explain all mutations of climate.
I was amused at the British Museum evidence. (344/2. This refers to the letter to Murchison (Letter 65), published with the evidence of the 1858 enquiry by the Trustees of the British Museum.) I am made to give my opinion so authoritatively on botanical matters!...
As for our belief in the origin of species making any difference in descriptive work, I am sure it is incorrect, for I did all my barnacle work under this point of view. Only I often groaned that I was not allowed simply to decide whether a difference was sufficient to deserve a name.
I am glad to hear about Huxley--a wonderful man.
LETTER 345. TO J.D. HOOKER. Wells Terrace, Ilkley, Otley, Yorkshire, Thursday [before December 9th, 1859].
I have read your discussion (345/1. See "Introductory Essay," page c. Darwin did not receive