DARWIN AND BOTANY 355 



DARWIN AND BOTANY ^ 



By Dr. NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON 



NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



CONSIDERING the fact that Charles Darwin disclaimed the title 

 of botanist, his contributions to the knowledge of plant life and its 

 phenomena were certainly extraordinary. His investigations extended 

 over a great range of topics, at one time or another practically covering 

 the whole field of botanical research. In repeatedly stating that he 

 was not a botanist, he evidently meant to imply that he was not a 

 systematist, and it is true that his knowledge of plant taxonomy was 

 the least of his scientific acquirements. In his first letter to Dr. Asa 

 Gray, written in 1855, which was the commencement of a long corre- 

 spondence, he almost apologized for asking questions ! During that 

 year he became keenly interested, however, in knowing more about the 

 kinds of plants growing wild in the vicinity of his home, and in a letter 

 to Dr. Hooker he complains about the dreadful difficulty of naming 

 plants, though he apparently became quite enthusiastic in this pursuit 

 and advised Dr. Hooker, " If ever you catch quite a beginner and want 

 to give him a taste of botany tell him to make a perfect list of some 

 little field or wood." The facts just stated seem to indicate the extent 

 of his taxonomic studies. He accepted, for the most part, the names 

 of plants which he studied from the determinations of others. 



Darwin was attracted to observations of natural objects as a young 

 boy and he early considered plants; his juvenile collections were ento- 

 mological, and his earlier investigations were mainly zoological and 

 geological. As a pupil of Professor Henslow at Cambridge University 

 he attended botanical lectures and took part in field excursions; he 

 greatly enjoyed the field work, and from it his inspiration for investi- 

 gation was doubtless derived. 



As naturalist of the voyage around the world of the ship Beagle 



(1831-1836) his collections of plants made in South America and on 



the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and his observations upon the botanical 



features of the countries visited, contributed greatly to the knowledge 



of the flora of those regions. They were extensively utilized by Dr. 



Hooker in his " Flora Antarctica " and in his " Flora of the Galapagos 



Archipelago," as well as by other authors in various contributions. 



Darwin's valuable herbarium is preserved in the museum of Cambridge 



^An address given at tlie American Museum of Natural History on Feb- 

 ruary 12. 



