274 



THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' 



[i860. 



you let me have it soon, with those confounded dashes over 



the vowels put in carefully ? Asa Gray, I believe, is going to 



get a second edition of my book, and I want to send this little 



preface over to him soon. I did not think of the necessity of 



having Naudin's sentence on finality, otherwise I would have 



copied it. 



Yours affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. I shall end by just alluding to your Australian 

 Flora Introduction. What was the date of publication : 

 December 1859, or January i860? Please answer this. 



My preface will also do for the French edition, which, I 

 believe, is agreed on. 



C. Darwin to J, D, Hooker. 



February [i860]. 



.... As the ' Origin ' now stands, Harvey's * is a good 

 hit against my talking so much of the insensibly fine grada- 

 tions ; and certainly it has astonished me that I should be 

 pelted with the fact, that I had not allowed abrupt and great 

 enough variations under nature. It would take a good deal 

 more evidence to make me admit that forms have often 

 changed by saltum. 



* William Henry Harvey was 

 descended from a Quaker family of 

 Youghal, and was born in Feb- 

 ruary, 181 1, at Summerville, a 

 country house on the banks of the 

 Shannon. He died at Torquay in 

 1866. In 1835, Harvey went to 

 Africa (Table Bay) to pursue his 

 botanical studies, the results of 

 which were given in his ' Genera of 

 South African Plants.' In 1838, 

 ill-health compelled him to obtain 

 leave of absence, and return to 

 England for a time ; in 1840 he 

 returned to Cape Town, to be again 



compelled by illness to leave. In 

 1843 he obtained the appointment 

 of Botanical Professor at Trinity 

 College, Dublin. In 1854, 1855, 

 and 1856 he visited Australia, New 

 Zealand, the Friendly and Fiji 

 Islands. In 1857 Dr. Harvey 

 reached home, and was appointed 

 the successor of Professor Allman 

 to the Chair of Botany in Dublin 

 University. He was author of 

 several botanical works, princi- 

 pally on Algae. (From a Memoir 

 published in 1869.) 



