6o 



GROWTH OF THE 'ORIGIN.' 



[1855. 



my opinion " on the retrograde step," * and I deserved a good 

 snub, and upon reflection I am very glad you did not answer 

 me in the Gardeners' Chronicle. 



I have been very much interested with the Florula. f 



[Writing on June 5th to Sir J. D. Hooker, my father 

 mentions a letter from Dr. Asa Gray. The letter referred to 

 was an answer to the following :] 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray.% 



Down, April 25th [1855]. 



My DEAR Sir, I hope that you will remember that I had 

 the pleasure of being introduced to you at Kew. I want to 

 beg a great favour of you, for which I well know I can offer 

 no apology. But the favour will not, I think, cause you much 

 trouble, and will greatly oblige me. As I am no botanist, it 

 will seem so absurd to you my asking botanical questions ; 

 that I may premise that I have for several years been collect- 

 ing facts on " variation," and when I find that any general 

 remark seems to hold good amongst animals, I try to test 

 it in Plants. [Here follows a request for information on 

 American Alpine plants, and a suggestion as to publishing 

 on the subject.] I can assure you that I perceive how pre- 

 sumptuous it is in me, not a botanist, to make even the most 



* "To imagine such enormous 

 geological changes within the period 

 of the existence of now living beings, 

 on no other ground but to account 

 for their distribution, seems to me, 

 in our present state of ignorance 

 on the means of transportal, an 

 almost retrograde step in science." 

 Extract from the paper on ' Salt 

 Water and Seeds ' in the Gardeners* 

 Chronicle, May 26, 1855. . 



t Godron's l Florula Juvenalis,' 

 which gives an interesting account of 



plants introduced in imported wooL 

 % The well-known American 

 Botanist. My father's friendship 

 with Dr. Gray began with the cor- 

 respondence of which the present is 

 the first letter. An extract from a 

 letter to Sir J. Hooker, 1857, shows 

 that my father's strong personal 

 regard for Dr. Gray had an early 

 origin : " I have been glad to see 

 A. Gray's letters ; there is always 

 something in them that shows that 

 he is a very lovable man." 



