culty for years was to understand adaptation, and this made me, I cannot but think, rightly, insist so much on Natural Selection. God forgive me for writing at such length; but you cannot tell how much your letter has interested me, and how important it is for me with my present book in hand to try and get clear ideas. Do think a bit about what is meant by direct action of physical conditions. I do not mean whether they act; my facts will throw some light on this. I am collecting all cases of bud-variations, in contradistinction to seed-variations (do you like this term, for what some gardeners call 'sports'?); these eliminate all effects of crossing. Pray remember how much I value your opinion as the clearest and most original I ever get.
I see plainly that Welwitschia will be a case of Barnacles.
I have another plant to beg, but I write on separate paper as more convenient for you to keep. I meant to have said before, as an excuse for asking for so much from Kew, that I have now lost two seasons, by accursed nurserymen not having right plants, and sending me the wrong instead of saying that they did not possess.
| To J. D. Hooker. |
| Freshwater, Isle of Wight, July 28th [1868]. |
I am glad to hear that you are going to touch on the statement that the belief in Natural Selection is passing away. I do not suppose that even the Athenæum would pretend that the belief in the common descent of species is passing away, and this is the more important point. This now almost universal belief in the evolution (somehow) of species, I think may be fairly attributed in large part to the Origin. It would be well for you to look at the short Introduction of Owen's Anat. of Invertebrates, and see how fully he admits the descent of species.
Of the Origin, four English editions, one or two American, two French, two German, one Dutch, one Italian, and several (as I was told) Russian editions. The translations of my book on Variation under Domestication are the results of the Origin; and of these two English, one American, one German, one French, one Italian, and one Russian have appeared, or will soon appear. Ernst Häckel wrote to me a week or two ago, that new discussions and reviews of the Origin are continually still coming out in Germany, where the interest on the subject certainly does not diminish. I have seen some of these discussions, and they are good ones. I apprehend that the interest on the subject has not died out in North America, from observing in Professor and Mrs. Agassiz's Book on Brazil how excessively anxious he is to destroy me. In regard to this country, every one can judge
