178 GEOWTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. [On. X. 



Society. With respect to the Club,* I am deeply interested ; 

 only two or three days ago, I was regretting to my wife, how I 

 was letting drop and being dropped by nearly all my acquaint- 

 ances, and that I would endeavour to go oftener to London ; I 

 was not then thinking of the Club, which, as far as one thing 

 goes, would answer my exact object in keeping up old and 

 making some new acquaintances. I will therefore come up to 

 London for every (with rare exceptions) Club-day, and then my 

 head, I think, will allow me on an average to go to every other 

 meeting. But it is grievous how often any change knocks me 

 up. I will further pledge myself, as I told Lyell, to resign 

 after a year, if I did not attend pretty often, so that I should 

 at worst encumber the Club temporarily. If you can get me 

 elected, I certainly shall be very much pleased. ... I am 

 particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter ; 

 how very pleasantly he writes. To see his and your caution on 

 the species-question ought to overwhelm me in confusion and 

 shame ; it does make me feel deuced uncomfortable. ... I 

 was pleased and surprised to see A. Gray's remarks on crossing 

 obliterating varieties, on which, as you know, I have been 

 collecting facts for these dozen years. How awfully flat I 

 shall feel, if, when I get. my notes together on species, &c. &c, 

 the whole thing explodes like an empty puff-ball. Do not work 

 yourself to death. 



Ever yours most truly. 



To work out the problem of the Geographical Distribution of 

 animals and plants on evolutionary principles, Darwin had to 

 study the means by which seeds, eggs, &c, can be transported 

 across wide spaces of ocean. It was this need which gave an 

 interest to the class of experiment to which the following 

 letters refer. 



* The Philosophical Club, to which my father was elected (as Professor 

 Bonney is good enough to inform me) on April 24, 1854. He resigned 

 his membership in 1864. The Club was founded in 1847. The number 

 of members being limited to 47, it was proposed to christen it " the 

 Club of 47," but the name was never adopted. The nature of the Club 

 may be gathered from its first rule : " The purpose of the Club is to 

 promote as much as possible the scientific objects of the Koyal Society ; 

 to facilitate intercourse between those Fellows who are actively engaged 

 in cultivating the various branches of Natural Science, and who have 

 contributed to its progress; to increase the attendance at the evening 

 meetings, and to encourage the contribution and discussion of papers." 

 The Club met for dinner at 6, and the chair was to be quitted at 8.15, it 

 being expected that members would go to the Royal Society. Of late 

 years the dinner has been at 6.30, the Society meeting in the afternoon. 



