More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume I [255]
had not been well made out; but perhaps it has been so recently. Such are my reasons for not as yet admitting the warmer period subsequent to Glacial epoch; but I daresay I may be quite wrong, and shall not be at all sorry to be proved so.
I shall assuredly read your essay with care, for I have seen as yet only a fragment, and very likely some parts, which I could not formerly clearly understand, will be clear enough.
LETTER 348. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, [December] 26th, [1859].
I have just read with intense interest as far as page xxvi (348/1. For Darwin's impression of the "Introductory Essay to the Tasmanian Flora" as a whole, see "Life and Letters," II., page 257.), i.e. to where you treat of the Australian Flora itself; and the latter part I remember thinking most of in the proof-sheets. Either you have altered a good deal, or I did not see all or was purblind, for I have been much more interested with all the first part than I was before,--not that I did not like it at first. All seems to me very clearly written, and I have been baulked at only one sentence. I think, on the whole, I like the geological, or rather palaeontological, discussion best: it seems to me excellent, and admirably cautious. I agree with all that you say as far as my want of special knowledge allows me to judge.
I have no criticisms of any importance, but I should have liked more facts in one or two places, which I shall not ask about. I rather demur to the fairness of your comparison of rising and sinking areas (348/2. Hooker, op. cit., page xv, paragraph 24. Hooker's view was that sinking islands "contain comparatively fewer species and fewer peculiar generic types than those which are rising." In Darwin's copy of the Essay is written on the margin of page xvi: "I doubt whole case."), as in the Indian Ocean you compare volcanic land with exclusively coral islands, and these latter are very small in area and have very peculiar soil, and during their formation are likely to have been utterly submerged, perhaps many times, and restocked with existing plants. In the Pacific, ignorance of Marianne and Caroline and other chief islands almost prevent comparison (348/3. Gambier Island would be an interesting case. [Note in original.]); and is it right to include American islands like Juan Fernandez and Galapagos? In such lofty and probably ancient islands as Sandwich and Tahiti it cannot make much difference in the flora whether they have sunk or risen a few thousand feet of late ages.
I wish you could work in your notion of certain parts of the Tropics having kept hot, whilst other parts were cooled; I tried this scheme in my mind, and it seemed to fail. On the whole, I like very much all that I have read of your Introduction, and I cannot doubt that it will have great weight in converting other botanists from the doctrine of immutable creation. What a lot of matter there is in one of your pages!
There are many points I wish much to discuss with you.
How I wish you could work out the Pacific floras: I remember ages ago reading some of your MS. In Paris there must be, I should think, materials from French voyages. But of all places in the world I should like to see a good flora of the Sandwich Islands. (348/4. See Hillebrand, "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands," 1888.) I would subscribe 50 pounds to any collector to go there and work at the islands. Would it not pay for a collector to go there, especially if aided by any subscription? It would be a fair occasion to ask for aid from the Government grant of the Royal Society. I think it is the most isolated group in the world, and the islands themselves well isolated from each other.
LETTER 349. TO ASA GRAY. Down, January 7th [1860].
I have just finished your Japan memoir (349/1. "Diagnostic Characters of New Species of Phaenogamous Plants collected in Japan by Charles Wright. With observations upon the Relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North America, etc.: 1857-59."--"Memoirs of Amer. Acad." VI.), and I must thank you for the extreme interest
I shall assuredly read your essay with care, for I have seen as yet only a fragment, and very likely some parts, which I could not formerly clearly understand, will be clear enough.
LETTER 348. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, [December] 26th, [1859].
I have just read with intense interest as far as page xxvi (348/1. For Darwin's impression of the "Introductory Essay to the Tasmanian Flora" as a whole, see "Life and Letters," II., page 257.), i.e. to where you treat of the Australian Flora itself; and the latter part I remember thinking most of in the proof-sheets. Either you have altered a good deal, or I did not see all or was purblind, for I have been much more interested with all the first part than I was before,--not that I did not like it at first. All seems to me very clearly written, and I have been baulked at only one sentence. I think, on the whole, I like the geological, or rather palaeontological, discussion best: it seems to me excellent, and admirably cautious. I agree with all that you say as far as my want of special knowledge allows me to judge.
I have no criticisms of any importance, but I should have liked more facts in one or two places, which I shall not ask about. I rather demur to the fairness of your comparison of rising and sinking areas (348/2. Hooker, op. cit., page xv, paragraph 24. Hooker's view was that sinking islands "contain comparatively fewer species and fewer peculiar generic types than those which are rising." In Darwin's copy of the Essay is written on the margin of page xvi: "I doubt whole case."), as in the Indian Ocean you compare volcanic land with exclusively coral islands, and these latter are very small in area and have very peculiar soil, and during their formation are likely to have been utterly submerged, perhaps many times, and restocked with existing plants. In the Pacific, ignorance of Marianne and Caroline and other chief islands almost prevent comparison (348/3. Gambier Island would be an interesting case. [Note in original.]); and is it right to include American islands like Juan Fernandez and Galapagos? In such lofty and probably ancient islands as Sandwich and Tahiti it cannot make much difference in the flora whether they have sunk or risen a few thousand feet of late ages.
I wish you could work in your notion of certain parts of the Tropics having kept hot, whilst other parts were cooled; I tried this scheme in my mind, and it seemed to fail. On the whole, I like very much all that I have read of your Introduction, and I cannot doubt that it will have great weight in converting other botanists from the doctrine of immutable creation. What a lot of matter there is in one of your pages!
There are many points I wish much to discuss with you.
How I wish you could work out the Pacific floras: I remember ages ago reading some of your MS. In Paris there must be, I should think, materials from French voyages. But of all places in the world I should like to see a good flora of the Sandwich Islands. (348/4. See Hillebrand, "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands," 1888.) I would subscribe 50 pounds to any collector to go there and work at the islands. Would it not pay for a collector to go there, especially if aided by any subscription? It would be a fair occasion to ask for aid from the Government grant of the Royal Society. I think it is the most isolated group in the world, and the islands themselves well isolated from each other.
LETTER 349. TO ASA GRAY. Down, January 7th [1860].
I have just finished your Japan memoir (349/1. "Diagnostic Characters of New Species of Phaenogamous Plants collected in Japan by Charles Wright. With observations upon the Relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North America, etc.: 1857-59."--"Memoirs of Amer. Acad." VI.), and I must thank you for the extreme interest