Darwin’s MS, volume 65

This volume contains material for Earthworms and drafts of Darwin’s various works. When I transcribed the volumes of 63-65 in 2021, I had omitted the back pages of the worm notes which are drafts of Cross and self-fertilisation. The transcripts of this volume has since been shared with Darwin Online. Corrections welcomed. Where a title is absent on the MS, the best description is adopted. Click on the classmark (DAR) for image view in Cambridge University Library archive.

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Reseda. DAR65.20v-21v
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] 236
Reseda
the last case, in two adjoining rows in the open ground; and the eight tallest plants in each row were measured, with the following result.
Table 40 ─ (seedlings from a semi-self-sterile plant planted
Reseda odorata, growing in the open ground)

[folio] 234
Reseda
my anticipation was quite wrong, (61) for they benefitted profited in a less degree. An analogous result followed in the case of Eschscholtzia, in which the offspring of the partially highly self-sterile plants of Brazilian parentage, which were partially self-sterile, did not profit more from a cross, than did the plants of the far more self-fertile English stock. The above two lots of crossed and self-fertilised seeds from the same plant of Reseda odorata, after germinating on sand, were planted on opposite sides of five pots, and measured as in the last case, with the following result:—

Table 39.
Reseda odorata, (seedling from a semi-self-sterile plant)

[Note: Draft is copied by Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 123 and 121-122.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Eschscholtzia. DAR65.23r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] 219
Eschscholtzia
height by between two and three inches, the seedlings in the two other rows, which were of nearly equal heights. The three rows were left unprotected throughout the winter, and all the plants were killed with the exception of two of the self-fertilised; so that as far as this little bit of evidence goes, some of the self-fertilised plants were more hardy than any of the crossed plants of the two lots.
[illeg]
We thus see that the self-fertilised plants which were grown in the nine pots were superior in height (as 116 to 100), and in weight (as 118 to 100), and apparently in hardiness, to the intercrossed plants derived from a cross between the grandchildren of the Brazilian stock. The superiority is here much more strongly marked than in the second experiment trial with the plants of the English plants stock, in which the self-fertilised were to the crossed in height as 101 to 100. It is a far more remarkable fact—if we bear in mind the effects of crossing plants with pollen from a fresh stock in the cases of analogous cases of Ipomœa, Mimulus, Brassica, and Iberis—that the self-fertilised

[Note: Draft is copied by Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, p. 114.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. This fact probably explains why common vegetable mould. DAR65.44r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
* foot-note p. 47)
This fact probably explains why common vegetable mould, which has all passed through the bodies of worms is not commonly acid, as far as I have observed. But in one part of my lawn, which part is not well drained & when moss & daisies chiefly grown grow, the mould was distinctly acid. I presume that decomposition of the humus acids had been here checked by air not having had free access

[Note: Draft is copied by Ebenezer Norman. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Earthworms, p. 245.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Nature of the circumnutating movement. DAR65.85r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio]
Chapter XII.
Summary.
Nature of the circumnutating movement. History of a germinating seed ─ The radicle protrudes first & circumnutates its tip highly sensitive.─ Emergence of the hypocotyl or epicotyl from the ground under or arched form the form of an arch – Its circumnutation & that of the cotyledons—The seedling throws up a stem-bearing leaves—modified circumnutation—Epinasty & hyponasty—Movements of climbing plants—Nyctitropic movements—excited by light and gravitation—Localised sensitiveness—Resemblance between the movements of plants & animals—The tip of the radicle acts like a brain.
(All this Chapt. in large type)

[Note: The text of this manuscript corresponds to Movement in plants, Chapter XII, p. 546.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Canna / Graminaceæ / Zea. DAR.65.86r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] 455
Canna
difference as this as equality; powers of growth; and this I believe to have been the result of long-continued self-fertilisation, together with exposure to similar conditions in each succeeding generation, so that all the individuals had acquired a closely similar constitution.
XXX Graminaceæ.
Zea M mays.
This plant is monoecious, and was selected for trial on this account, as no other such plant of this kind having been experimented on.* It is also anemophilous, that is, or it is fertilised by means of the wind; and of such plants only the common beet had alone been tried. Some plants of maize were grown raised in the greenhouse, and were crossed with pollen taken from a distinct plant; and a single plant, growing quite separately in a different part of the house, was allowed to fertilise itself spontaneously. The seeds thus obtained were placed on damp sand, and as they germinated were planted in pairs of equal age on the opposite sides of four very large pots; nevertheless

[Note: Draft in the hand of Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 233-234.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. with Francis Darwin. Undated. Chapter 7, folio 47. DAR65.87r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] 47
Ch XII
Finally it is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance between the foregoing movements of plants & many of the actions performed unconsciously by the lower animals.* & the foregoing movements of plants. With plants an astonishingly small stimulus suffices; and even with allied species one may be highly sensitive to the slightest continued pressure & another more so to a slight touch.

The habit of movement at certain periods of the day is inherited; & several other points of similitude have been specified. But the most striking point is the localisation of their sensitiveness, and the transmission of an influence from the excited part to another which consequently moves. Yet plants do not of course possess nerves or a central nervous system; & we may infer that with animals such structures in animals serve only for the more perfect transmission of impressions, & orders, and for the more complete intercommunication of the several parts.)

[Note: Draft in the hand of Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Movement on plants, pp. 571-572.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Footnote page 175. DAR65.119r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] [175]
* page 175
The admirable mechanical adaptations in this genus for favouring or ensuring cross-fertilisation have been fully described by Sprengel, Hildebrand, Delpino, H. Müller, Ogle and others in their several works.

[Note: Draft in the hand of Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, p. 93.]

Citation: Darwin, C. R. Undated. Petunia. DAR65.125r
Transcribed and edited by: Christine Chua (08.2023)
Transcript:
[folio] 379
Petunia
We thus get the following ratios,
Seeds from the Westerham crossed capsules

[Note: Draft in the hand of Ebenezer Norman with corrections by Darwin. The text of this manuscript corresponds to Cross and self fertilisation, pp. 196-197.]