The Life and Letters-2 [213]
and one regrets bitterly that he did not live to see his labours thus valued. It rejoices me also to notice how highly you appreciate H. Muller, who has always seemed to me an admirable observer and reasoner. I am at present endeavouring to persuade an English publisher to bring out a translation of his 'Befruchtung.'
Lastly, permit me to thank you for your very generous remarks on my works. By placing what I have been able to do on this subject in systematic order, you have made me think more highly of my own work than I ever did before! Nevertheless, I fear that you have done me more than justice.
I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully and obliged, CHARLES DARWIN.
[The letter which follows was called forth by Dr. Gray's article in 'Nature,' to which reference has already been made, and which appeared June 4, 1874:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, June 3 [1874].
My dear Gray,
I was rejoiced to see your hand-writing again in your note of the 4th, of which more anon. I was astonished to see announced about a week ago that you were going to write in 'Nature' an article on me, and this morning I received an advance copy. It is the grandest thing ever written about me, especially as coming from a man like yourself. It has deeply pleased me, particularly some of your side remarks. It is a wonderful thing to me to live to see my name coupled in any fashion with that of Robert Brown. But you are a bold man, for I am sure that you will be sneered at by not a few botanists. I have never been so honoured before, and I hope it will do me good and make me try to be as careful as possible; and good heavens, how difficult accuracy is! I feel a very proud man, but I hope this won't last...
[Fritz Muller has observed that the flowers of Hedychium are so arranged that the pollen is removed by the wings of hovering butterflies. My father's prediction of this observation is given in the following letter:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H. MULLER. Down, August 7, 1876.
...I was much interested by your brother's article on Hedychium; about two years ago I was so convinced that the flowers were fertilized by the tips of the wings of large moths, that I wrote to India to ask a man to observe the flowers and catch the moths at work, and he sent me 20 to 30 Sphinx- moths, but so badly packed that they all arrived in fragments; and I could make out nothing...
Yours sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[The following extract from a letter (February 25, 1864), to Dr. Gray refers to another prediction fulfilled:--
"I have of course seen no one, and except good dear Hooker, I hear from no one. He, like a good and true friend, though so overworked, often writes to me.
"I have had one letter which has interested me greatly, with a paper, which will appear in the Linnean Journal, by Dr. Cruger of Trinidad, which shows that I am all right about Catasetum, even to the spot where the pollinia adhere to the bees, which visit the flower, as I said, to gnaw the labellum. Cruger's account of Coryanthes and the use of the bucket-like labellum full of water beats everything: I SUSPECT that the bees being well wetted flattens their hairs, and allows the viscid disc to adhere."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO THE MARQUIS DE SAPORTA. Down, December 24, 1877.
My dear Sir,
I thank you sincerely for your long and most interesting letter, which I should have answered sooner had it not been delayed in London. I had not heard before that I was to be proposed as a Corresponding Member of the Institute. Living so retired a life as I do, such honours affect me very little, and I can say with entire truth that your kind expression of sympathy has given and will give me much more pleasure than the election itself, should I be elected.
Your idea that dicotyledonous plants were not developed in force until sucking insects had been evolved seems to me a splendid one. I am surprised that the idea never occurred to me, but this is always the case when one first hears a new and simple explanation of some mysterious phenomenon...I formerly showed
Lastly, permit me to thank you for your very generous remarks on my works. By placing what I have been able to do on this subject in systematic order, you have made me think more highly of my own work than I ever did before! Nevertheless, I fear that you have done me more than justice.
I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully and obliged, CHARLES DARWIN.
[The letter which follows was called forth by Dr. Gray's article in 'Nature,' to which reference has already been made, and which appeared June 4, 1874:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, June 3 [1874].
My dear Gray,
I was rejoiced to see your hand-writing again in your note of the 4th, of which more anon. I was astonished to see announced about a week ago that you were going to write in 'Nature' an article on me, and this morning I received an advance copy. It is the grandest thing ever written about me, especially as coming from a man like yourself. It has deeply pleased me, particularly some of your side remarks. It is a wonderful thing to me to live to see my name coupled in any fashion with that of Robert Brown. But you are a bold man, for I am sure that you will be sneered at by not a few botanists. I have never been so honoured before, and I hope it will do me good and make me try to be as careful as possible; and good heavens, how difficult accuracy is! I feel a very proud man, but I hope this won't last...
[Fritz Muller has observed that the flowers of Hedychium are so arranged that the pollen is removed by the wings of hovering butterflies. My father's prediction of this observation is given in the following letter:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H. MULLER. Down, August 7, 1876.
...I was much interested by your brother's article on Hedychium; about two years ago I was so convinced that the flowers were fertilized by the tips of the wings of large moths, that I wrote to India to ask a man to observe the flowers and catch the moths at work, and he sent me 20 to 30 Sphinx- moths, but so badly packed that they all arrived in fragments; and I could make out nothing...
Yours sincerely, CH. DARWIN.
[The following extract from a letter (February 25, 1864), to Dr. Gray refers to another prediction fulfilled:--
"I have of course seen no one, and except good dear Hooker, I hear from no one. He, like a good and true friend, though so overworked, often writes to me.
"I have had one letter which has interested me greatly, with a paper, which will appear in the Linnean Journal, by Dr. Cruger of Trinidad, which shows that I am all right about Catasetum, even to the spot where the pollinia adhere to the bees, which visit the flower, as I said, to gnaw the labellum. Cruger's account of Coryanthes and the use of the bucket-like labellum full of water beats everything: I SUSPECT that the bees being well wetted flattens their hairs, and allows the viscid disc to adhere."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO THE MARQUIS DE SAPORTA. Down, December 24, 1877.
My dear Sir,
I thank you sincerely for your long and most interesting letter, which I should have answered sooner had it not been delayed in London. I had not heard before that I was to be proposed as a Corresponding Member of the Institute. Living so retired a life as I do, such honours affect me very little, and I can say with entire truth that your kind expression of sympathy has given and will give me much more pleasure than the election itself, should I be elected.
Your idea that dicotyledonous plants were not developed in force until sucking insects had been evolved seems to me a splendid one. I am surprised that the idea never occurred to me, but this is always the case when one first hears a new and simple explanation of some mysterious phenomenon...I formerly showed