Lydia Becker

Sir

I have this day forwarded to you a small box containing plants of Lychnis which I hope will reach you tomorrow in tolerably good condition.² I have also enclosed a tin canister of flowers and I hope there will be pollen enough to enable you if you please to try the experiment of fertilising with it some of the plants grown in your neighbourhood. Since I wrote last³ I took my note book into a different part of the wood and examined 122 plants of Lychnis with ⁠⟨⁠the⁠⟩⁠ following result—

Common form. males 41 females 23. hermaphrodite 29 males with dark stamens. 29   I pulled to pieces numbers of the flowers with long p⁠⟨⁠is⁠⟩⁠til but never found the stamens developed in them. The stamens are normally of medium length but in some plants they are very long, in others very short, the flowers on each plant are generally alike in this as in other respects.

With many apologies for troubling you by writing so much about these plants I remain Sir | Yours very respectfully | L. E. Becker

Sir—

Allow me to thank you for your most kind and courteous reply to the communic⁠⟨⁠ation⁠⟩⁠ I ventured to make to you   I am indeed grateful that you wish to investigate the structure and history of the curious Lychnis.² I hope in the course of next week to send you a small hamper containing roots which will probably continue to flower this season after they have been planted in your garden. On receipt of your second letter this morning I went into the wood and examined 137 plants of Lychnis,³ taking them indiscriminately, though I do not pretend to have examined all I saw. The plants were of four kinds, viz

1 Male flowers of the usual type small pale yellow anthers   56

2 Female flower do. with long spreading pistils   25

3 Hermaphrodites having large dark purple anthers and dark purple anthers and short straight upright pistils   31

Male flowers with stamens like those of the hermaphrodite   25

I searched in vain for a female flower with pistils like the hermaphrodite or an hermaphrodite with pistils like the female flower. this suggests the query Can the long spreading pistils be an adaptation or a struggle to catch the pollen wafted from a distant flower, a provision needless in the hermaphrodite which has an abundant supply close at hand.

I tried in vain to classify the plants according to the ⁠⟨⁠length⁠⟩⁠ of the stamens   this ⁠⟨⁠seems to⁠⟩⁠ vary indefinitely even in the same flower— And I think that when the plant has been gathered a few days, the stamens do grow rather long; you will readily sort the flowers I sen⁠⟨⁠t⁠⟩⁠ under the four heads I have enumerated. I have put in one or two of the common type for comparison with those which grow in your district. I have been given to understand that hermaphrodites occasionally appear in this Lychnis, but have never been able to make out whether they normally differ so much in the character of their stamens and pistils from the common form as do those found at Altham. I have never seen an hermaphrodite Lychnis diurna⁴ except in the woods ⁠⟨⁠near⁠⟩⁠ here where it is, ⁠⟨⁠as⁠⟩⁠ you may gather from the numbers given above, very abundant, and so I have observed it several years in succession, I fancy it is hereditary. I will take care to collect as much se⁠⟨⁠ed⁠⟩⁠ as I can during the summer marking and noting the plants from which I obtain it, and transmit it to you at the end of the season in the capsules. I will also find out as much as possible of the distribution numbers and range of the variety. There is a practically unlimited supply of specimens here and I need hardly say that I shall be most happy to send you as many, and whenever you would like to have them. I hope it is not asking too much that y⁠⟨⁠ou⁠⟩⁠ will be good enough to favour me ⁠⟨⁠wi⁠⟩⁠th the result of your investigation and also let me know if you hear of the variety occurring in other places.

I am Sir | yours very respectfully | Lydia E. Becker

May. 24. I have kept the flowers fresh till today to avoid the detention in the post office over the Sunday. I hope they will arrive in good condition but I will enclose a tin can also with a bunch of the flowers in the packet of roots.

Sir—

At the risk of being troublesome I cannot refrain from expressing my thanks for your letter and the paper you have done me the honour to send me which I do indeed highly prize.² I had seen an abstract of it, and this induced me to send you the Lychnis.³ I am of course much disappointed that it does not possess the interest you at first thought it might possibly have but I cannot regret having sent it as it has procured for me the pleasure and honour of the communications with which you have favoured me.⁴ The resemblance of the black powder on the anthers to the smut of wheat had struck me but I never thought of the obvious inference that it was a similar cryptogamic growth. And there are one or two points which still excite my curiosity   How is it that this parasite invariably attacks the hermaphrodites, and how does it get into the unopened buds? Can it be that the plant is weakened in the endeavour to perfect both stamens and pistils and so rendered liable to the attacks of disease. And does this presumed weakness in the plant account for the small size of the pistils?⁵

I found one solitary f⁠⟨⁠emale⁠⟩⁠ plant with small p⁠⟨⁠istils⁠⟩⁠ and upon watching it for three days to see if the pistils would grow, I cut off and send you the only flower expanded. Though the plant looks vigorous enough I suspect it is accidental weakness and not divergence of form which causes the peculiarity but I will try to save seed from it and also test the goodness of the seed of the hermaphrodites.

I am sorry to have troubled you with sending the roots now that they are not likely to prove interesting⁶   indeed I hope they will not do mischief by spreading among other plants the insinuating parasite with which they ⁠⟨⁠ar⁠⟩⁠e charged, and I beg you to believe that I am not so unreasonable as to expect you to give yourself any further trouble on my account though I should be very glad if my difficulties could be satisfactorily explained.⁷

Again thanking you for your extreme courtesy and kindness—I am Sir—yours much obliged and very respectfully | L. E. Becker

Dear Sir

I send you some seed of Lychnis diurna gathered in Altham woods. You will probably not be surprised to learn that I have hitherto been unable to obtain a single capsule of seed from an hermaphrodite flower.² I have examined, I should think, hundreds of plants, and find, that invariably, the oldest capsules, corresponding in age to those which in the female plants, have already ripened their seed, are shrivelled up to nothing. Many of the younger capsules seem so fresh and healthy, (though none are so vigorous as on the female plants,) that I cannot help fancying they may come to something, but I have never discovered a good one at all approaching maturity. I will continue to watch the plants carefully, and should I obtain seed from the hermaphrodites I will not fail to send you some.

I was prevented by wet weather from going to the woods as soon as I wished to mark the plants, and those I at length ticketed have scarcely ripened their seed, but I entertain no shadow of a doubt, from the appearance of the capsules and the remains of the styles, that all the seed sent is from female plants. It was gathered in a wood abounding in hermaphrodites which seem to be nearly if not altogether barren an⁠⟨⁠d⁠⟩⁠ it may possibly interest you to try whether they will produce hermaphrodites when sown in another locality. I send it now, as I have an impression that in order to have flowers next spring, it is advisable to sow it so that they young plants may get well grown before winter. I observe a considerable variation in the form of the capsules, these are usually nearly globular, but some plants have them shorter others longer than the average. The elongation is occasionally carried so far as to seem like an imitation of the allied genus Cerastium   I have put in separate papers a few capsules shewing the extreme forms, and I intend to try whether the peculiarities are hereditary, as well as constant in the individual, and can be perpetuated or increased by selection.

In your last letter you say that the pale colour of some of the flowers leads you to suppose that the white Lychnis may grow in the same wood, and that the hermaphrodites may be natural hybrids.³ But in Professor Babington: “Manual” it is stated that both Lychnis diurna and vespertina vary in colour from red to white and from white to red.⁴ I could have gathered a bunch in our woods, shaded through every tint from rich rose to pure white, which would have admirably illustrated this remark as regards diurna, but the whitest of them all did not make the slightest approach, in any other character than colour, to the genuine White Lychnis, which I have never seen growing in this district. And whenever I have been fortunate enough to meet with this very interesting and rather scarce plant, it did not grow in woods, but in open fields or hedges. Since I received your letter I have looked more particularly for it, but in vain.

It therefore seems as if we must look to another cause for the hermaphrodites, and there seems nothing but to attribute it to the parasite.⁵ You say, adding the perfectly useless caution not to trust you on the point that the fungus may exist in the tissues of the plant and be propagated in the seed   I could not, if I tried, help believing that this is so though I am at a loss to comprehend how the propagation is accomplished   The female plants appear thoroughly free from the parasite while the infected plants seem incapable of producing seed, and their pollen you have found to be entirely destroyed by the fungus. Is it possible that the spores of the fungus may fall on the stigma and be conveyed along with the healthy pollen tube to the ovules? They must get into the tissues of the plant in some way as the fungus is found in the immature, unopened buds and I cannot do⁠⟨⁠ubt⁠⟩⁠ the correctness of your suspicion that it destroys the pollen and causes the development of the ovarium in some, though not in nearly all of the infected plants—

I hope you will be indulgent with me for presuming to write you so long a letter and believe me to be | yours most respectfully | L. E. Becker

After repeated and fruitless search I at last discovered one of my marked plants of Lychnis which had ripened its seeds—² I was so much surprised to see this solitary exception to the otherwise universal rule of sterility in the hermaphrodites that I suspected myself of error in marking it—but after soaking one of the withered flowers in water for a day or two I got out the remains of a stamen skin which I have enclosed and which seems to place beyond a doubt that in this one instance an hermaphrodite plant has ripened its seeds   ⁠⟨⁠I hav⁠⟩⁠e kept a few of the ⁠⟨⁠seeds⁠⟩⁠ to try if they will ⁠⟨⁠ger⁠⟩⁠minate and enclose the rest of the plant just as I picked it. It has occurred to me that the failure of the hermaphrodites to produce seeds may be owing not solely to imperfection in the ovarium but to difficulty in getting fertised, its own pollen being destroyed. The stigmas are very minute, wholly concealed within the calyx tube, and thickly covered with the mass of diseased stamens, so unless visited by an insect of an unusually pushing disposition it seems impossible that they ever should be fertilised. I tried to effect this artificially in some of the plants in my garden and have not yet had time to be quite sure that no results will follow though as yet there is no difference perceptible between the flowers operated on and the others.

Your great kindness in sending me your pamphlet³ must be my excuse for venturing to remark that I am watching with great interest a pot of scarlet Linum which I procured soon after reading it. The plants are blooming freely but all that have come out hitherto have been long styled flowers   Some of the styles are much shorter than others but all present the same characters.

I have two other pots of seeds of my own sowing and perhaps some of these plants will shew the other form when they come into flower

I remain Sir, | with much respect | yours sincerely | L E Becker

Dear Sir

You were so indulgent to me when I troubled you with a communication last summer¹ that I presume on your kindness so far as to take the liberty of offering for your acceptance the accompanying little book in the hope that you may look kindly on my endeavour to make plain by familiar language and illustration the general principles of the subject to which it relates.² It is intended chiefly for young ladies but I trust this circumstance alone would not cause you to consider it beneath your notice,³ for it is precisely those who have attained the greatest eminence in the pursuit of science who might be expected to feel pleasure in the thought that others however far removed from them, should be led to share in some degree, the happiness which the study of nature is capable of affording. Therefore I working for those who have yet their alphabet to learn, venture to hope that my attempt may find favour from you—at the other end of the scale—who have done more than any other to arouse general interest in the science you love so well and who have made plain for future explorers— the path in which henceforward they must all proceed—

I remain dear Sir | yours respectfully | Lydia E. Becker

My dear M^r. Darwin

Before proceeding to the object of my letter I must try to recall my name to your recollection. I scarcely dare flatter myself, that I can do this successfully, though the remembrance of your great kindness and courtesy to me will never fade from my mind and is a constant source of pride and pleasure.

In the summer of 1863 I ventured to send you some flowers of Lychnis diurna which seemed to present some curious characteristics, and though they proved on examination not to possess the interest you at first thought they might have with respect to your own investigations you were good enough to write me several notes about them.¹ You also did me the honour to send me a copy of a paper you had read to the Linnæan Society on two forms in the genus Linum and I had the greatest pleasure in immediately procuring a pot of seedlings of crimson flax—and watching the appearances you had recorded²

At first the plants which bloomed had long styled flowers only, and at this point my correspondence with you came to a natural close, leaving you under the impression that there had been a failure in my observations. I have often since wished that I could have expressed to you the admiration and delight with which I perceived how, when the short styled flowers at last made their appearance, the capsules which till then, had withered away with the petals, seemed to start into life—how they grew and they swelled and rapidly became vigorous and healthy fruits— But I had no pretext for troubling you with any further communication and I feared I had already trespassed too much on your attention.

I have not been able to pursue my study of the Lychis flowers nor my endeavours to penetrate the mystery of their alteration in form, for since then we have ceased to reside in the country and now, surrounded by acres of bricks and mortar—and an atmosphere laden with coal smoke, I have no opportunity of watching living plants.³

But living in a town has its advantages, among others it makes possible such societies as that indicated in the circular I have taken the liberty to enclose. A few ladies have joined together hoping for much pleasure and instruction from their little society, which is quite in its infancy and needs a helping hand. Am I altogether too presumptuous in seeking this help from you? Our petition is—would you be so very good as to send us a paper to be read at our first meeting⁴   Of course we are not so unreasonable as to desire that you should write anything specially for us, but I think it possible you may have by you a copy of some paper such as that on the Linum which you have communicated to the learned societies but which is unknown and inaccessible to us unless through your kindness. In your paper on the Linum you mention your experiments on Primula ⁵which greatly excite my interest and curiosity, for last spring as I was gathering primroses I was forcibly struck with the difference between the “pin eyed” flowers, and those in which the stigma was concealed beneath the anthers. I have known of this difference in the Polyanthus⁶ from childhood, but not until I read your paper was I aware of its interest or importance and now I have just enough information to excite and tantalise, but not to satisfy, a strong desire for more. If you will pardon the presumption of the request, I would beg that your goodness might prompt you to send something you may have on hand in the form of pamphet or paper which would help us to learn the meaning of these curious differences in the flowers, and as we may all hope during the coming spring for the pleasure of luxuriating on a primrose bank we should indeed be grateful for the kindness that had guided us to look more closely into the beautiful things we were enjoying.

I send this with much misgiving lest you may be displeased at the liberty I have taken   if I have a hope of pardon it rests entirely on your goodness.

Believe me always | yours much obliged | Lydia E. Becker.

My dear Sir

Will you please to accept my hearty thanks for the paper on “Climbing Plants, which you have generously bestowed on me, and for the loan of the others which I will take great care of, and return to you before long—² You do not name Primula farinosa in your paper³—but will not be surprised to hear that in looking over my dried specimens of this plant, nine in number—I find 5 long styled, and 4 short styled plants. I have taken the liberty of enclosing one of each in proof of my words

and remain | dear Sir | yours sincerely | Lydia E Becker

My dear Sir

I return you—with more thanks than I know how to express, the two papers which you were so good as to entrust to my care.¹ Will you have the kindness to cause me to be informed of their arrival—having once lost a book-post packet I shall feel a little anxious till I hear they are again in your hands—and this induces me to give you the little extra trouble involved in registering the packet—for which I must apologise.

I have transcribed portions of them, and made large copies of the diagrams— I hope this was not wrong—without your permission, but I thought, as they were printed—I might do so without impropriety.

The arrangements in Lythrum are indeed most marvellous. It sets one wondering whether different sized stamens in the same flower can ever be quite without meaning, and if there is any difference in the action of the pollen of the long and short stamens in didynamous and tetradynamous flowers.² In the N. O. Geraniaceae ³ it seems as if there might be some transition going on—for in Geranium each alternate stamen is smaller, and in the allied genus Erodium the alternate stamens have become sterile. Can it be possible that this genus was once dimorphic, and one of the female forms having by any means become exterminated, the corresponding set of stamens have shed away? If one of the forms of Lythrum were to disappear—two sets of stamens would be made useless to the species, and it is conceivable that they might then gradually become abortive.⁴

I obeyed your directions about the paper on Climbing Plants and the insight into their extraordinary and regular movements was a new revelation to all of us.⁵ I made large copies of the diagrams and dived into my herbarium for specimens of each class of climbers, bringing up enough to make a goodly show. Luckily a collection of ferns from the islands of the South Pacific recently presented to me contained a specimen of one named in your paper Lygodium scandens. Till I read it I had never dreamed of twiners in this class, as none of our British ferns have the habit,⁶ but as the “march of intellect” seems to be the order of the day, even in the vegetable world, there is no telling what they may accomplish in time!

Our society appears likely to prosper beyond my expectations   the countenance you have afforded has been of wonderful service, and I do hope that by becoming useful to its members it may prove in some degree worthy of the generous encouragement you have given us.

The ladies who had the privilege of listening to the paper desire to express their thanks to you for it, which I hope you will be pleased to accept.

Believe me to be | yours gratefully | Lydia E. Becker.

My dear Sir

I am just enjoying the long deferred pleasure of studying your book on animals and plants under domestication and I hope you will not think it wrong in me before I come to the object of my note to say with what pleasure and wonder I endeavour to follow the facts and reasonings there unfolded. Especially the chapter on Pangenesis, which seems like a revelation.¹ The power of imagination which can thus realise the Unseen seems akin to inspiration— Though you only announce it as a provisional hypothesis to connect hitherto unexplained facts, the key fits the puzzle so beautifully that I cannot help supposing it to be the right one—and nothing but the presentation to my mind of a more probable theory could detach it from the firm hold it has taken of yours   If I might venture a prophecy I would say that the hypothesis of Pangenesis is likely to have at least as great a result in giving value and coherence to scientific thought and investigation as the earlier one with which your name is connected.

But of course I should not have intruded on your attention to offer an opinion on your book which I fear you may think presumptuous— It is with reference to a passage p. 154—vol 2—on parrots under domestication that I write to you—² When you wrote it I think you could hardly have been aware of what you may probably have heard now—the existence of a colony of parrots naturalised at Northrepps Hall near Cromer—the residence of the Dowager Lady Buxton—³ I dare say you know all I am going to relate   if so, my apology must be the supposition that you might prefer the chance of hearing more than once of an interesting fact to the possibility of never hearing it at all.

At the last meeting of the British Association a party of the members were entertained at Northrepps Hall.⁴On entering the grounds, a beautiful sight presented itself— The garden was surrounded with lofty trees whose branches were all alive with great white cockatoos—green parrots and gray—flying about like pigeons. At the entrance was a large elm tree bearing a signboard, on which was inscribed “Parrot’s nest and a ladder was placed for the convenience of any enterprising member of the B.A. who might be inclined to take a peep at the erection a large heap of twigs like an enormous rook’s nest, but resting on a thick branch— We were informed that a young brood had just tenanted the nest and it had been hoped they would be obliging enough to remain till the scientific visitors came to see them but they had perversely flown the day before— I saw what I suppose to be this young brood nursing in a large cage—six baby-parrots all in a row with their little red tails sprouting nicely—

We were told that the birds had been domesticated there for thirty years, that they breed freely and were perfectly naturalised—but they have the shelter of a conservatory provided for winter— They are at perfect liberty, and sometimes fly miles away—but when they do this, they frequently get shot— Many have been destroyed in this way—

I saw an old green parrot who I was told was the original progenitor in the colony—and had the honour of carrying her about on my hand— The birds were tamer than ordinary pigeons— they would fly down for food—perch on one’s hand, and allow themselves to be carried about without any symptoms of alarm—

M^r. Charles Buxton M.P—read a very interesting paper giving an account of their history and habits.⁵ I did not take notes, so I cannot give you many particulars but doubtless he would be most willing to afford you full information respecting them—

He said that in the middle of the day the cockatoos retired to roost in the trees, and then the whole colony was invisible— he said it was very wonderful how such large white birds could contrive to hide so completely among the branches of English fruit trees, that not a feather could be seen.

They had come out for the evening by the time we got there and the sight was one of the most charming I have ever seen— But it makes one sigh to see these glorious tropical birds so thoroughly at home in our lands, and to reflect that but for the barbarous an inhuman practice of shooting every lovely feathered stranger that puts in an appearance among us we might hope to see our parks and woods decked with these gorgeous creatures as our gardens and conservatories are with tropical plants.—

We were told that the liberty in which these birds lived did not destroy their imitative faculties—many of them learned to talk—

Again apologising if I have troubled you with a needless communication

Believe me to be | Yours very truly | Lydia E. Becker

Charles Darwin Esq.

My dear Mr. Darwin

Will you permit me to send you the enclosed abstract of a paper read at the Exeter Meeting of the British Association, respecting the curious variety of campion flowers I took the liberty of sending you a few years ago, and in which you were good enough to express some interest¹

If you think the subject worthy of your attention I should be greatly obliged if you would kindly inform me whether you think it possible that the fungus could exert what looks like an “active coercive force to bend the structure of the flower to its necessities”. From all that I have observed I cannot rest in any other conclusion but in the enclosed abstract, I have merely given the result to which I have been led and not entered into the detailed reasons for it.

If you paid any attention to those plants which I sent you, you may have observed some facts which will bear on this curious question.²

On your theory of Pangenesis it seems to me not inconceivable that gemmules of stamens may circulate undeveloped in the pistilliferous plants of campion, and that the presence of the parasite may cause the condition under which these can develop—but without this theory I am totally unable to conjecture in what manner the fungus possibly can cause stamens to grow in a flower that would not naturally have produced them.³

Apologising for troubling you with this note I am | yours very truly | Lydia E. Becker

Charles Darwin Esq—

My dear Sir

I have thought of sending my paper on the Lychnis to some magazine or Journal of Botany¹ There are in it verbatim extracts from letters of yours to me about these flowers and I write to ask if you will give me permission to print these extracts.² If you desire it, I will send the paper to you that you may see what the extracts are—

Do you think that Seeman’s Journal of Botany would be a good periodical to send it to or that it would be better to have it inserted in the Transactions of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society.³ I wish that the matter could be brought under the notice of botanists so that attention may be directed to the appearances during the ensuing spring.

Believe me to be | yours sincerely | Lydia E Becker

Chas Darwin Esq