Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II Part 62

1880.

[The few sentences in the autobiographical chapter give with sufficient clearness the connection between the 'Power of Movement,' and one of the author's earlier books, that on 'Climbing Plants.' The central idea of the book is that the movements of plants in relation to light, gravitation, etc., are modifications of a spontaneous tendency to revolve or circ.u.mnutate, which is widely inherent in the growing parts of plants. This conception has not been generally adopted, and has not taken a place among the canons of orthodox physiology. The book has been treated by Professor Sachs with a few words of professorial contempt; and by Professor Wiesner it has been honoured by careful and generously expressed criticism.

Mr. Thiselton Dyer ('Charles Darwin' ('Nature' Series), page 41.) has well said: "Whether this masterly conception of the unity of what has. .h.i.therto seemed a chaos of unrelated phenomena will be sustained, time alone will show. But no one can doubt the importance of what Mr. Darwin has done, in showing that for the future the phenomena of plant movement can and indeed must be studied from a single point of view."

The work was begun in the summer of 1877, after the publication of 'Different Forms of Flowers,' and by the autumn his enthusiasm for the subject was thoroughly established, and he wrote to Mr. Dyer: "I am all on fire at the work." At this time he was studying the movements of cotyledons, in which the sleep of plants is to be observed in its simplest form; in the following spring he was trying to discover what useful purpose these sleep-movements could serve, and wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker (March 25th, 1878):--

"I think we have PROVED that the sleep of plants is to lessen the injury to the leaves from radiation. This has interested me much, and has cost us great labour, as it has been a problem since the time of Linnaeus.

But we have killed or badly injured a mult.i.tude of plants: N.B.--Oxalis carnosa was most valuable, but last night was killed."

His letters of this period do not give any connected account of the progress of the work. The two following are given as being characteristic of the author:]

CHARLES DARWIN TO W. THISELTON DYER. Down, June 2, 1878.

My dear Dyer,

I remember saying that I should die a disgraced man if I did not observe a seedling Cactus and Cycas, and you have saved me from this horrible fate, as they move splendidly and normally. But I have two questions to ask: the Cycas observed was a huge seed in a broad and very shallow pot with cocoa-nut fibre as I suppose. It was named only Cycas. Was it Cycas pectinata? I suppose that I cannot be wrong in believing that what first appears above ground is a true leaf, for I can see no stem or axis.

Lastly, you may remember that I said that we could not raise Opuntia nigricans; now I must confess to a piece of stupidity; one did come up, but my gardener and self stared at it, and concluded that it could not be a seedling Opuntia, but now that I have seen one of O. basilaris, I am sure it was; I observed it only casually, and saw movements, which makes me wish to observe carefully another. If you have any fruit, will Mr. Lynch (Mr. R.I. Lynch, now Curator of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge was at this time in the Royal Gardens, Kew.) be so kind as to send one more?

I am working away like a slave at radicles [roots] and at movements of true leaves, for I have pretty well done with cotyledons...

That was an EXCELLENT letter about the Gardens (This refers to an attempt to induce the Government to open the Royal Gardens at Kew in the morning.): I had hoped that the agitation was over. Politicians are a poor truckling lot, for [they] must see the wretched effects of keeping the gardens open all day long.

Your ever troublesome friend, CH. DARWIN.

CHARLES DARWIN TO W. THISELTON DYER. 4 Bryanston St., Portman Square, November 21 [1878].

My dear Dyer,

I must thank you for all the wonderful trouble which you have taken about the seeds of Impatiens, and on scores of other occasions. It in truth makes me feel ashamed of myself, and I cannot help thinking: "Oh Lord, when he sees our book he will cry out, is this all for which I have helped so much!" In seriousness, I hope that we have made out some points, but I fear that we have done very little for the labour which we have expended on our work. We are here for a week for a little rest, which I needed.

If I remember right, November 30th, is the anniversary at the Royal, and I fear Sir Joseph must be almost at the last gasp. I shall be glad when he is no longer President.

Yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN.

[In the spring of the following year, 1879. When he was engaged in putting his results together, he wrote somewhat despondingly to Mr.

Dyer: "I am overwhelmed with my notes, and almost too old to undertake the job which I have in hand--i.e. movements of all kinds. Yet it is worse to be idle."

Later on in the year, when the work was approaching completion, he wrote to Prof. Carus (July 17, 1879), with respect to a translation:--

"Together with my son Francis, I am preparing a rather large volume on the general movements of Plants, and I think that we have made out a good many new points and views.

"I fear that our views will meet a good deal of opposition in Germany; but we have been working very hard for some years at the subject.

"I shall be MUCH pleased if you think the book worth translating, and proof-sheets shall be sent you, whenever they are ready."

In the autumn he was hard at work on the ma.n.u.script, and wrote to Dr.

Gray (October 24, 1879):--

"I have written a rather big book--more is the pity--on the movements of plants, and I am now just beginning to go over the MS. for the second time, which is a horrid bore."

Only the concluding part of the next letter refers to the 'Power of Movements':]

CHARLES DARWIN TO A. DE CANDOLLE. May 28, 1880.

My dear Sir,

I am particularly obliged to you for having so kindly send me your 'Phytographie' (A book on the methods of botanical research, more especially of systematic work.); for if I had merely seen it advertised, I should not have supposed that it could have concerned me. As it is, I have read with very great interest about a quarter, but will not delay longer thanking you. All that you say seems to me very clear and convincing, and as in all your writings I find a large number of philosophical remarks new to me, and no doubt shall find many more. They have recalled many a puzzle through which I pa.s.sed when monographing the Cirripedia; and your book in those days would have been quite invaluable to me. It has pleased me to find that I have always followed your plan of making notes on separate pieces of paper; I keep several scores of large portfolios, arranged on very thin shelves about two inches apart, fastened to the walls of my study, and each shelf has its proper name or t.i.tle; and I can thus put at once every memorandum into its proper place. Your book will, I am sure, be very useful to many young students, and I shall beg my son Francis (who intends to devote himself to the physiology of plants) to read it carefully.

As for myself I am taking a fortnight's rest, after sending a pile of MS. to the printers, and it was a piece of good fortune that your book arrived as I was getting into my carriage, for I wanted something to read whilst away from home. My MS. relates to the movements of plants, and I think that I have succeeded in showing that all the more important great cla.s.ses of movements are due to the modification of a kind of movement common to all parts of all plants from their earliest youth.

Pray give my kind remembrances to your son, and with my highest respect and best thanks,

Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, CHARLES DARWIN.

P.S.--It always pleases me to exalt plants in the organic scale, and if you will take the trouble to read my last chapter when my book (which will be sadly too big) is published and sent to you, I hope and think that you also will admire some of the beautiful adaptations by which seedling plants are enabled to perform their proper functions.

[The book was published on November 6, 1880, and 1500 copies were disposed of at Mr. Murray's sale. With regard to it he wrote to Sir J.D.

Hooker (November 23):--

"Your note has pleased me much--for I did not expect that you would have had time to read ANY of it. Read the last chapter, and you will know the whole result, but without the evidence. The case, however, of radicles bending after exposure for an hour to geotropism, with their tips (or brains) cut off is, I think, worth your reading (bottom of page 525); it astounded me. The next most remarkable fact, as it appeared to me (page 148), is the discrimination of the tip of the radicle between a slightly harder and softer object affixed on opposite sides of tip. But I will bother you no more about my book. The sensitiveness of seedlings to light is marvellous."

To another friend, Mr. Thiselton Dyer, he wrote (November 28, 1880):--

"Very many thanks for your most kind note, but you think too highly of our work, not but what this is very pleasant... Many of the Germans are very contemptuous about making out the use of organs; but they may sneer the souls out of their bodies, and I for one shall think it the most interesting part of Natural History. Indeed you are greatly mistaken if you doubt for one moment on the very great value of your constant and most kind a.s.sistance to us."

The book was widely reviewed, and excited much interest among the general public. The following letter refers to a leading article in the "Times", November 20, 1880:]

CHARLES DARWIN TO MRS. HALIBURTON. (Mrs. Haliburton was a daughter of my father's early friend, the late Mr. Owen, of Woodhouse.) Down, November 22, 1880.

My dear Sarah,

You see how audaciously I begin; but I have always loved and shall ever love this name. Your letter has done more than please me, for its kindness has touched my heart. I often think of old days and of the delight of my visits to Woodhouse, and of the deep debt of grat.i.tude I owe to your father. It was very good of you to write. I had quite forgotten my old ambition about the Shrewsbury newspaper (Mrs.

Haliburton had reminded him of his saying as a boy that if Eddowes'

newspaper ever alluded to him as "our deserving fellow-townsman," his ambition would be amply gratified.); but I remember the pride which I felt when I saw in a book about beetles the impressive words "captured by C. Darwin." Captured sounded so grand compared with caught. This seemed to me glory enough for any man! I do not know in the least what made the "Times" glorify me (The following is the opening sentence of the leading article:--"Of all our living men of science none have laboured longer and to more splendid purpose than Mr. Darwin."), for it has sometimes pitched into me ferociously.

I should very much like to see you again, but you would find a visit here very dull, for we feel very old and have no amus.e.m.e.nt, and lead a solitary life. But we intend in a few weeks to spend a few days in London, and then if you have anything else to do in London, you would perhaps come and lunch with us. (My father had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Haliburton at his brother's house in Queen Anne Street.)

Believe me, my dear Sarah, Yours gratefully and affectionately, CHARLES DARWIN.

[The following letter was called forth by the publication of a volume devoted to the criticism of the 'Power of Movement in Plants' by an accomplished botanist, Dr. Julius Wiesner, Professor of Botany in the University of Vienna:]