1859—1863] button's review 183 



about sexual selection. In my larger MS. (and indeed in the Letter 123 

 Origin with respect to the tuft of hairs on the breast of the 

 cock -turkey) I have guarded myself against going too far ; 

 but I did not at all know that male and female butterflies 

 haunted rather different sites. If I had to cut up myself in a 

 review I would have [worried ?] and quizzed sexual selection ; 

 therefore, though I am fully convinced that it is largely true, 

 you may imagine how pleased I am at what you say on your 

 belief. This part of your letter to me is a quintessence of 

 richness. The fact about butterflies attracted by coloured 

 sepals is another good fact, worth its weight in gold. It 

 would have delighted the heart of old Christian C. Sprengel 1 — 

 now many years in his grave. 



I am glad to hear that you have specially attended to 

 " mimetic " analogies — a most curious subject ; I hope you 

 publish on it. I have for a long time wished to know 

 whether what Dr. Collingwood asserts is true — that the most 

 striking cases generally occur between insects inhabiting the 

 same country. 



To F. W. Hutton. 2 Letter 124 



Down, April 20th [1861]. 



I hope that you will permit me to thank you for sending 

 me a copy of your paper in The Geologist? and at the same 

 time to express my opinion that you have done the sub- 

 ject a real service by the highly original, striking, and 



1 Christian Konrad Sprengel (1750-1816) was for a time Rector of 

 Spandau, near Berlin ; but his enthusiasm for Botany led to neglect 

 of parochial duties, and to dismissal from his living. His well-known 

 work, Das Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur, was published in 1793. An 

 account of Sprengel was published in Flora, 1819, by one of his old 

 pupils. See also Life and Letters, I., p. 90, and an article in Natural 

 Science, Vol. II., 1893, by J. C. Willis. 



2 Frederick Wollaston Hutton, F.R.S., formerly Curator of the Can- 

 terbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand, author of Darwinism and 

 Lamarckism, Old and New, London, 1899. 



3 In a letter to Hooker (April 23rd?, 1861) Darwin refers to Hutton's 

 review as "very original," and adds that Hutton is "one of the very 

 few who see that the change of species cannot be directly proved . . ." 

 (Life and Letters, II., p. 362). The review appeared in The Geologist 

 (afterwards known as The Geological Magazine} for 1861, pp. 132-6 

 and 183-8. A letter on " Difficulties of Darwinism" is published in the 

 same volume of The Geologist, p. 286. 



