Volume II Part 54 (1/2)
Again to the same friend, November 1, 1861:--
”If you really can spare another Catasetum, when nearly ready, I shall be most grateful; had I not better send for it? The case is truly marvellous; the (so-called) sensation, or stimulus from a light touch is certainly transmitted through the antennae for more than one inch INSTANTANEOUSLY... A cursed insect or something let my last flower off last night.”
Professor de Candolle has remarked ('Darwin considere, etc.,' 'Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles,' 3eme periode. Tome vii. 481, 1882 (May).) of my father, ”Ce n'est pas lui qui aurait demande de construire des palais pour y loger des laboratoires.” This was singularly true of his orchid work, or rather it would be nearer the truth to say that he had no laboratory, for it was only after the publication of the 'Fertilisation of Orchids,' that he built himself a greenhouse. He wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker (December 24th, 1862):--
”And now I am going to tell you a MOST important piece of news!! I have almost resolved to build a small hot-house; my neighbour's really firs-rate gardener has suggested it, and offered to make me plans, and see that it is well done, and he is really a clever fellow, who wins lots of prizes, and is very observant. He believes that we should succeed with a little patience; it will be a grand amus.e.m.e.nt for me to experiment with plants.”
Again he wrote (February 15th, 1863):--
”I write now because the new hot-house is ready, and I long to stock it, just like a schoolboy. Could you tell me pretty soon what plants you can give me; and then I shall know what to order? And do advise me how I had better get such plants as you can SPARE. Would it do to send my tax-cart early in the morning, on a day that was not frosty, lining the cart with mats, and arriving here before night? I have no idea whether this degree of exposure (and of course the cart would be cold) could injure stov-plants; they would be about five hours (with bait) on the journey home.”
A week later he wrote:--
”you cannot imagine what pleasure your plants give me (far more than your dead Wedgwood ware can give you); and I go and gloat over them, but we privately confessed to each other, that if they were not our own, perhaps we should not see such transcendent beauty in each leaf.”
And in March, when he was extremely unwell he wrote:--
”A few words about the Stove-plants; they do so amuse me. I have crawled to see them two or three times. Will you correct and answer, and return enclosed. I have hunted in all my books and cannot find these names (His difficulty with regard to the names of plants is ill.u.s.trated, with regard to a Lupine on which he was at work, in an extract from a letter (July 21, 1866) to Sir J.D. Hooker: ”I sent to the nursery garden, whence I bought the seed, and could only hear that it was 'the common blue Lupine,' the man saying 'he was no scholard, and did not know Latin, and that parties who make experiments ought to find out the names.'”), and I like much to know the family.”
The book was published May 15th, 1862. Of its reception he writes to Murray, June 13th and 18th:--
”The Botanists praise my Orchid-book to the skies. Some one sent me (perhaps you) the 'Parthenon,' with a good review. The ”Athenaeum” (May 24, 1862.) treats me with very kind pity and contempt; but the reviewer knew nothing of his subject.”
”There is a superb, but I fear exaggerated, review in the 'London Review,' (June 14, 1862.) But I have not been a fool, as I thought I was, to publish (Doubts on this point still, however, occurred to him about this time. He wrote to Prof. Oliver (June 8): ”I am glad that you have read my Orchis-book and seem to approve of it; for I never published anything which I so much doubted whether it was worth publis.h.i.+ng, and indeed I still doubt. The subject interested me beyond what, I suppose, it is worth.”); for Asa Gray, about the most competent judge in the world, thinks almost as highly of the book as does the 'London Review.' The ”Athenaeum” will hinder the sale greatly.”
The Rev. M.J. Berkeley was the author of the notice in the 'London Review,' as my father learned from Sir J.D. Hooker, who added, 'I thought it very well done indeed. I have read a good deal of the Orchid-book, and echo all he says.”
To this my father replied (June 30th, 1862):--
”My dear Old Friend,
You speak of my warming the c.o.c.kles of your heart, but you will never know how often you have warmed mine. It is not your approbation of my scientific work (though I care for that more than for any one's): it is something deeper. To this day I remember keenly a letter you wrote to me from Oxford, when I was at the Water-cure, and how it cheered me when I was utterly weary of life. Well, my Orchis-book is a success (but I do not know whether it sells.)”
In another letter to the same friend, he wrote:--
”You have pleased me much by what you say in regard to Bentham and Oliver approving of my book; for I had got a sort of nervousness, and doubted whether I had not made an egregious fool of myself, and concocted pleasant little stinging remarks for reviews, such as 'Mr.
Darwin's head seems to have been turned by a certain degree of success, and he thinks that the most trifling observations are worth publication.'”
Mr. Bentham's approval was given in his Presidential Address to the Linnean Society, May 24, 1862, and was all the more valuable because it came from one who was by no means supposed to be favourable to evolutionary doctrines.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY. Down, June 10 [1862].
My dear Gray,
Your generous sympathy makes you overestimate what you have read of my Orchid-book. But your letter of May 18th and 26th has given me an almost foolish amount of satisfaction. The subject interested me, I knew, beyond its real value; but I had lately got to think that I had made myself a complete fool by publis.h.i.+ng in a semi-popular form. Now I shall confidently defy the world. I have heard that Bentham and Oliver approve of it; but I have heard the opinion of no one else whose opinion is worth a farthing... No doubt my volume contains much error: how curiously difficult it is to be accurate, though I try my utmost. Your notes have interested me beyond measure. I can now afford to d-- my critics with ineffable complacency of mind. Cordial thanks for this benefit. It is surprising to me that you should have strength of mind to care for science, amidst the awful events daily occurring in your country. I daily look at the ”Times” with almost as much interest as an American could do. When will peace come? it is dreadful to think of the desolation of large parts of your magnificent country; and all the speechless misery suffered by many. I hope and think it not unlikely that we English are wrong in concluding that it will take a long time for prosperity to return to you. It is an awful subject to reflect on...
[Dr. Asa Gray reviewed the book in 'Silliman's Journal' ('Silliman's Journal,' volume xxiv. page 138. Here is given an account of the fertilisation of Platanthera Hookeri. P. hyperborea is discussed in Dr. Gray's 'Enumeration' in the same volume, page 259; also, with other species, in a second notice of the Orchid-book at page 420.), where he speaks, in strong terms, of the fascination which it must have for even slightly instructed readers. He made, too, some original observations on an American orchid, and these first-fruits of the subject, sent in MS.
or proof sheet to my father, were welcomed by him in a letter (July 23rd):--