Чарльз Дарвин
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2
LETTER 568. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, June 30th {1866}.
I have heard from Sulivan (who, poor fellow, gives a very bad account of his own health) about the fossils (568/1. In a letter to Huxley (June 4th, 1866) Darwin wrote: "Admiral Sulivan several years ago discovered an astonishingly rich accumulation of fossil bones not far from the Straits {of Magellan}...During many years it has seemed to me extremely desirable that these should be collected; and here is an excellent opportunity.")... The place is Gallegos, on the S. coast of Patagonia. Sulivan says that in the course of two or three days all the boats in the ship could be filled twice over; but to get good specimens out of the hardish rock two or three weeks would be requisite. It would be a grand haul for Palaeontology. I have been thinking over your lecture. (568/2. A lecture on "Insular Floras" given at the British Association meeting at Nottingham, August 27th, 1866, published in the "Gard. Chron." 1867.) Will it not be possible to give enlarged drawings of some leading forms of trees? You will, of course, have a large map, and George tells me that he saw at Sir H. James', at Southampton, a map of the world on a new principle, as seen from within, so that almost 4/5ths of the globe was shown at once on a large scale. Would it not be worth while to borrow one of these from Sir H. James as a curiosity to hang up?
Remember you are to come here before Nottingham. I have almost finished the last number of H. Spencer, and am astonished at its prodigality of original thought. But the reflection constantly recurred to me that each suggestion, to be of real value to science, would require years of work. It is also very unsatisfactory, the impossibility of conjecturing where direct action of external circumstances begins and ends — as he candidly owns in discussing the production of woody tissue in the trunks of trees on the one hand, and on the other in spines and the shells of nuts. I shall like to hear what you think of this number when we meet.
LETTER 569. TO A. GAUDRY. Down, November 17th, 1868.
On my return home after a short absence I found your note of Nov. 9th, and your magnificent work on the fossil animals of Attica. (569/1. The "Geologie de l'Attique," 2 volumes 4to, 1862-7, is the only work of Gaudry's of this date in Mr. Darwin's library.) I assure you that I feel very grateful for your generosity, and for the honour which you have thus conferred on me. I know well, from what I have already read of extracts, that I shall find your work a perfect mine of wealth. One long passage which Sir C. Lyell quotes from you in the 10th and last edition of the "Principles of Geology" is one of the most striking which I have ever read on the affiliation of species. (569/2. The quotation in Lyell's "Principles," Edition X., Volume II., page 484, is from M. Gaudry's "Animaux Fossiles de Pikermi," 1866, page 34: —
"In how different a light does the question of the nature of species now present itself to us from that in which it appeared only twenty years ago, before we had studied the fossil remains of Greece and the allied forms of other countries. How clearly do these fossil relics point to the idea that species, genera, families, and orders now so distinct have had common ancestors. The more we advance and fill up the gaps, the more we feel persuaded that the remaining voids exist rather in our knowledge than in nature. A few blows of the pickaxe at the foot of the Pyrenees, of the Himalaya, of Mount Pentelicus in Greece, a few diggings in the sandpits of Eppelsheim, or in the Mauvaises Terres of Nebraska, have revealed to us the closest connecting links between forms which seemed before so widely separated. How much closer will these links be drawn when Palaeontology shall have escaped from its cradle!")
LETTER 570. A. SEDGWICK TO CHARLES DARWIN.
(570/1. In May, 1870, Darwin "went to the Bull Hotel, Cambridge, to see the boys, and for a little rest and enjoyment." (570/2. See "Life and Letters," III., 125.) The following letter was received after his return to Down.)
Trinity College, Cambridge, May 30th, 1870.
My dear Darwin,
Your very kind letter surprised me. Not that I was surprised at the pleasant and very welcome feeling with which it was written. But I could not make out what I had done to deserve the praise of "extraordinary kindness to yourself and family." I would most willingly have done my best to promote the objects of your visit, but you gave me no opportunity of doing so. I was truly grieved to find that my joy at seeing you again was almost too robust for your state of nerves, and that my society, after a little while, became oppressive to you. But I do trust that your Cambridge visit has done you no constitutional harm; nay, rather that it has done you some good. I only speak honest truth when I say that I was overflowing with joy when I saw you, and saw you in the midst of a dear family party, and solaced at every turn by the loving care of a dear wife and daughters. How different from my position — that of a very old man, living in cheerless solitude! May god help and cheer you all with the comfort of hopeful hearts — you and your wife, and your sons and daughters!
You were talking about my style of writing, — I send you my last specimen, and it will probably continue to be my last. It is the continuation of a former pamphlet of which I have not one spare copy. I do not ask you to read it. It is addressed to the old people in my native Dale of Dent, on the outskirts of Westmorland. While standing at the door of the old vicarage, I can see down the valley the Lake mountains — Hill Bell at the head of Windermere, about twenty miles off. On Thursday next (D.V.) I am to start for Dent, which I have not visited for full two years. Two years ago I could walk three or four miles with comfort. Now, alas! I can only hobble about on my stick.
I remain your true-hearted old friend A. Sedgwick.
LETTER 571. TO C. LYELL. Down, September 3rd {1874}.
Many thanks for your very kind and interesting letter. I was glad to hear at Southampton from Miss Heathcote a good account of your health and strength.
With respect to the great subject to which you refer in your P.S., I always try to banish it from my mind as insoluble; but if I were circumstanced as you are, no doubt it would recur in the dead of the night with painful force. Many persons seem to make themselves quite easy about immortality (571/1. See "Life and Letters," I., page 312.) and the existence of a personal God, by intuition; and I suppose that I must differ from such persons, for I do not feel any innate conviction on any such points.
We returned home about ten days ago from Southampton, and I enjoyed my holiday, which did me much good. But already I am much fatigued by microscope and experimental work with insect-eating plants.
When at Southampton I was greatly interested by looking at the odd gravel deposits near at hand, and speculating about their formation. You once told me something about them, but I forget what; and I think that Prestwich has written on the superficial deposits on the south coasts, and I must find out his paper and read it. (571/2. Prof. Prestwich contributed several papers to the Geological Society on the Superficial Deposits of the South of England.)
From what I have seen of Mr. Judd's papers I have thought that he would rank amongst the few leading British geologists.
LETTER 572. TO J.D. HOOKER.
(572/1. The following letter was written before Mr. Darwin knew that Sir Charles Lyell was to be buried in Westminster Abbey, a memorial which thoroughly satisfied him. See "Life and Letters," III., 197.)
Down, February 23rd, 1875.
I have just heard from Miss Buckley of Lyell's death. I have long felt opposed to the present rage for testimonials; but when I think how Lyell revolutionised Geology, and aided in the progress of so many other branches of science, I wish that something could be done in his honour. On the other hand it seems to me that a poor testimonial would be worse than none; and testimonials seem to succeed only when a man has been known and loved by many persons, as in the case of Falconer and Forbes. Now, I doubt whether of late years any large number of scientific men did feel much attachment towards Lyell; but on this head I am very ill fitted to judge. I should like to hear some time what you think, and if anything is proposed I should particularly wish to join in it. We have both lost as good and as true a friend as ever lived.
LETTER 573. TO J.D. HOOKER.
(573/1. This letter shows the difficulty which the inscription for Sir Charles Lyell's memorial gave his friends. The existing inscription is, "Charles Lyell...Author of 'The Principles of Geology'...Throughout a long and laborious life he sought the means of deciphering the fragmentary records of the Earth's history in the patient investigation of the present order of Nature, enlarging the boundaries of knowledge, and leaving on Scientific thought an enduring influence..."
Down, June 21st {1876}.
I am sorry for you about the inscription, which has almost burst me. We think there are too many plurals in yours, and when read aloud it hisses like a goose. I think the omission of some words makes it much stronger. "World" (573/2. The suggested sentence runs: "he gave to the world the results of his labour, etc.") is much stronger and truer than "public." As Lyell wrote various other books and memoirs, I have some little doubt about the "Principles of Geology." People here do not like your "enduring value": it sounds almost an anticlimax. They do not much like my "last (or endure) as long as science lasts." If one reads a sentence often enough, it always becomes odious.
God help you.
LETTER 574. TO OSWALD HEER. Down, March 8th {1875}.
I thank you for your very kind and deeply interesting letter of March 1st, received yesterday, and for the present of your work, which no doubt I shall soon receive from Dr. Hooker. (574/1. "Flora Fossilis Arctica," Volume III., 1874, sent by Prof. Heer through Sir Joseph Hooker.) The sudden appearance of so many Dicotyledons in the Upper Chalk appears to me a most perplexing phenomenon to all who believe in any form of evolution, especially to those who believe in extremely gradual evolution, to which view I know that you are strongly opposed. (574/2. The volume referred to contains a paper on the Cretaceous Flora of the Arctic Zone (Spitzbergen and Greenland), in which several dicotyledonous plants are described. In a letter written by Heer to Darwin the author speaks of a species of poplar which he describes as the oldest Dicotyledon so far recorded.) The presence of even one true Angiosperm in the Lower Chalk makes me inclined to conjecture that plants of this great division must have been largely developed in some isolated area, whence owing to geographical changes, they at last succeeded in escaping, and spread quickly over the world. (574/3. No satisfactory evidence has so far been brought forward of the occurrence of fossil Angiosperms in pre-Cretaceous rocks. The origin of the Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons remains one of the most difficult and attractive problems of Palaeobotany.) (574/4. See Letters 395, 398.) But I fully admit that this case is a great difficulty in the views which I hold. Many as have been the wonderful discoveries in Geology during the last half-century, I think none have exceeded in interest your results with respect to the plants which formerly existed in the Arctic regions. How I wish that similar collections could be made in the Southern hemisphere, for instance in Kerguelen's Land.
The death of Sir C. Lyell is a great loss to science, but I do not think to himself, for it was scarcely possible that he could have retained his mental powers, and he would have suffered dreadfully from their loss. The last time I saw him he was speaking with the most lively interest about his last visit to you, and I was grieved to hear from him a very poor account of your health. I have been working for some time on a special subject, namely insectivorous plants. I do not know whether the subject will interest you, but when my book is published I will have the pleasure of sending you a copy.
I am very much obliged for your photograph, and enclose one of myself.
LETTER 574*. TO S.B.J. SKERTCHLY. March 2nd, 1878.
It is the greatest possible satisfaction to a man nearly at the close of his career to believe that he has aided or stimulated an able and energetic fellow-worker in the noble cause of science. Therefore your letter has deeply gratified me. I am writing this away from home, as my health failed, and I was forced to rest; and this will account for the delay in answering your letter. No doubt on my return home I shall find the memoir which you have kindly sent me. I shall read it with much interest, as I have heard something of your work from Prof. Geikie, and have read his admirable "Ice Age." (574/5. "The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man": London, 1874. By James Geikie.) I have noticed the criticisms on your work, but such opposition must be expected by every one who draws fine grand conclusions, and such assuredly are yours as abstracted in your letter. (574/6. Mr. S.B.J. Skertchly recorded "the discovery of palaeolithic flint implements, mammalian bones, and fresh-water shells in brick-earths below the Boulder-clay of East Anglia," in a letter published in the "Geol. Mag." Volume III., page 476, 1876. (See also "The Fenland, Past and Present." S.H. Miller and S.B.J. Skertchly, London, 1878.) The conclusions of Mr. Skertchly as to the pre-Glacial age of the flint implements were not accepted by some authorities. (See correspondence in "Nature," Volume XV., 1877, pages 141, 142.) We are indebted to Mr. Marr for calling our attention to Mr. Skertchly's discovery.) What magnificent progress Geology has made within my lifetime!
I shall have very great pleasure in sending you any of my books with my autograph, but I really do not know which to send. It will cost you only the trouble of a postcard to tell me which you would like, and it shall soon be sent. Forgive this untidy note, as it is rather an effort to write.
With all good wishes for your continued success in science and for your happiness...
CHAPTER 2.X. — BOTANY, 1843-1871
2. X.I. Miscellaneous. — 2.X.II. Melastomaceae. — 2.X.III. Correspondence with John Scott.
2. X.I. MISCELLANEOUS, 1843-1862.
(PLATE: SIR JOSEPH HOOKER, 1897. From a Photograph by W.J. Hawker Wimborne. Walker & Cockerell, ph. sc.)
LETTER 575. TO WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER. Down, March 12th {1843}.
...When you next write to your son, will you please remember me kindly to him and give him my best thanks for his note? I had the pleasure yesterday of reading a letter from him to Mr. Lyell of Kinnordy, full of the most interesting details and descriptions, and written (if I may be permitted to make such a criticism) in a particularly agreeable style. It leads me anxiously to hope, even more than I did before, that he will publish some separate natural history journal, and not allow (if it can be avoided) his materials to be merged in another work. I am very glad to hear you talk of inducing your son to publish an Antarctic Flora. I have long felt much curiosity for some discussion on the general character of the flora of Tierra del Fuego, that part of the globe farthest removed in latitude from us. How interesting will be a strict comparison between the plants of these regions and of Scotland and Shetland. I am sure I may speak on the part of Prof. Henslow that all my collection (which gives a fair representation of the Alpine flora of Tierra del Fuego and of Southern Patagonia) will be joyfully laid at his disposal.
LETTER 576. TO JOHN LINDLEY. Down, Saturday {April 8th, 1843}.
I take the liberty, at the suggestion of Dr. Royle, of forwarding to you a few seeds, which have been found under very singular circumstances. They have been sent to me by Mr. W. Kemp, of Galashiels, a (partially educated) man, of whose acuteness and accuracy of observation, from several communications on geological subjects, I have a VERY HIGH opinion. He found them in a layer under twenty-five feet thickness of white sand, which seems to have been deposited on the margins of an anciently existing lake. These seeds are not known to the provincial botanists of the district. He states that some of them germinated in eight days after being planted, and are now alive. Knowing the interest you took in some raspberry seeds, mentioned, I remember, in one of your works, I hope you will not think me troublesome in asking you to have these seeds carefully planted, and in begging you so far to oblige me as to take the trouble to inform me of the result. Dr. Daubeny has started for Spain, otherwise I would have sent him some. Mr. Kemp is anxious to publish an account of his discovery himself, so perhaps you will be so kind as to communicate the result to me, and not to any periodical. The chance, though appearing so impossible, of recovering a plant lost to any country if not to the world, appears to me so very interesting, that I hope you will think it worth while to have these seeds planted, and not returned to me.
LETTER 577. TO C. LYELL. {September, 1843.}
An interesting fact has lately, as it were, passed through my hands. A Mr. Kemp (almost a working man), who has written on "parallel roads," and has corresponded with me (577/1. In a letter to Henslow, Darwin wrote: "If he {Mr. Kemp} had not shown himself a most careful and ingenious observer, I should have thought nothing of the case."), sent me in the spring some seeds, with an account of the spot where they were found, namely, in a layer at the bottom of a deep sand pit, near Melrose, above the level of the river, and which sand pit he thinks must have been accumulated in a lake, when the whole features of the valleys were different, ages ago; since which whole barriers of rock, it appears, must have been worn down. These seeds germinated freely, and I sent some to the Horticultural Society, and Lindley writes to me that they turn out to be a common Rumex and a species of Atriplex, which neither he nor Henslow (as I have since heard) have ever seen, and certainly not a British plant! Does this not look like a vivification of a fossil seed? It is not surprising, I think, that seeds should last ten or twenty thousand {years}, as they have lasted two or three {thousand years} in the Druidical mounds, and have germinated.
When not building, I have been working at my volume on the volcanic islands which we visited; it is almost ready for press...I hope you will read my volume, for, if you don't, I cannot think of anyone else who will! We have at last got our house and place tolerably comfortable, and I am well satisfied with our anchorage for life. What an autumn we have had: completely Chilian; here we have had not a drop of rain or a cloudy day for a month. I am positively tired of the fine weather, and long for the sight of mud almost as much as I did when in Peru.
(577/2. The vitality of seeds was a subject in which Darwin continued to take an interest. In July, 1855 ("Life and Letters," II., page 65), he wrote to Hooker: "A man told me the other day of, as I thought, a splendid instance — and splendid it was, for according to his evidence the seed came up alive out of the lower part of the London Clay! I disgusted him by telling him that palms ought to have come up."
In the "Gardeners' Chronicle," 1855, page 758, appeared a notice (half a column in length) by Darwin on the "Vitality of Seeds." The facts related refer to the "Sand-walk" at Down; the wood was planted in 1846 on a piece of pasture land laid down as grass in 1840. In 1855, on the soil being dug in several places, Charlock (Brassica sinapistrum) sprang up freely. The subject continued to interest him, and we find a note dated July 2nd, 1874, in which Darwin recorded that forty-six plants of Charlock sprang up in that year over a space (14 x 7 feet) which had been dug to a considerable depth. In the course of the article in the "Gardeners' Chronicle," Darwin remarks: "The power in seeds of retaining their vitality when buried in damp soil may well be an element in preserving the species, and therefore seeds may be specially endowed with this capacity; whereas the power of retaining vitality in a dry artificial condition must be an indirect, and in one sense accidental, quality in seeds of little or no use to the species."
The point of view expressed in the letter to Lyell above given is of interest in connection with the research of Horace Brown and F. Escombe (577/3. "Proc. Roy. Soc." Volume LXII., page 160.) on the remarkable power possessed by dry seeds of resistance to the temperature of liquid air. The point of the experiment is that life continues at a temperature "below that at which ordinary chemical reactions take place." A still more striking demonstration of the fact has been made by Thiselton-Dyer and Dewar who employed liquid hydrogen as a refrigerant. (577/4. Read before the British Association (Dover), 1899, and published in the "Comptes rendus," 1899, and in the "Proc. R. Soc." LXV., page 361, 1899.) The connection between these facts and the dormancy of buried seeds is only indirect; but inasmuch as the experiment proves the possibility of life surviving a period in which no ordinary chemical change occurs, it is clear that they help one to believe in greatly prolonged dormancy in conditions which tend to check metabolism. For a discussion of the bearing of their results on the life-problem, and for the literature of the subject, reference should be made to the paper by Brown and Escombe. See also C. de Candolle "On Latent Life in Seeds," "Brit. Assoc. Report," 1896, page 1023 and F. Escombe, "Science Progress," Volume I., N.S., page 585, 1897.)
LETTER 578. TO J.S. HENSLOW. Down, Saturday {November 5th, 1843}.
I sent that weariful Atriplex to Babington, as I said I would, and he tells me that he has reared a facsimile by sowing the seeds of A. angustifolia in rich soil. He says he knows the A. hastata, and that it is very different. Until your last note I had not heard that Mr. Kemp's seeds had produced two Polygonums. He informs me he saw each plant bring up the husk of the individual seed which he planted. I believe myself in his accuracy, but I have written to advise him not to publish, for as he collected only two kinds of seeds — and from them two Polygomuns, two species or varieties of Atriplex and a Rumex have come up, any one would say (as you suggested) that more probably all the seeds were in the soil, than that seeds, which must have been buried for tens of thousands of years, should retain their vitality. If the Atriplex had turned out new, the evidence would indeed have been good. I regret this result of poor Mr. Kemp's seeds, especially as I believed, from his statements and the appearance of the seeds, that they did germinate, and I further have no doubt that their antiquity must be immense. I am sorry also for the trouble you have had. I heard the other day through a circuitous course how you are astonishing all the clodhoppers in your whole part of the county: and {what is} far more wonderful, as it was remarked to me, that you had not, in doing this, aroused the envy of all the good surrounding sleeping parsons. What good you must do to the present and all succeeding generations. (578/1. For an account of Professor Henslow's management of his parish of Hitcham see "Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow, M.A." by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns: 8vo, London, 1862.)
LETTER 579. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, November 14th {1855}.
You well know how credulous I am, and therefore you will not be surprised at my believing the Raspberry story (579/1. This probably refers to Lindley's story of the germination of raspberry seeds taken from a barrow 1600 years old.): a very similar case is on record in Germany — viz., seeds from a barrow; I have hardly zeal to translate it for the "Gardeners' Chronicle." (579/2. "Vitality of Seeds," "Gardeners' Chronicle," November 17th, 1855, page 758.) I do not go the whole hog — viz., that sixty and two thousand years are all the same, for I should imagine that some slight chemical change was always going on in a seed. Is this not so? The discussions have stirred me up to send my very small case of the charlock; but as it required some space to give all details, perhaps Lindley will not insert; and if he does, you, you worse than an unbelieving dog, will not, I know, believe. The reason I do not care to try Mr. Bentham's plan is that I think it would be very troublesome, and it would not, if I did not find seed, convince me myself that none were in the earth, for I have found in my salting experiments that the earth clings to the seeds, and the seeds are very difficult to find. Whether washing would do I know not; a gold-washer would succeed, I daresay.
LETTER 580. TO W.J. HOOKER.
Testimonial from Charles Darwin, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. and G.S., late Naturalist to Captain Fitz-Roy's Voyage.
Down House, Farnborough, August 25th, 1845.
I have heard with much interest that your son, Dr. Hooker, is a candidate for the Botanical Chair at Edinburgh. From my former attendance at that University, I am aware how important a post it is for the advancement of science, and I am therefore the more anxious for your son's success, from my firm belief that no one will fulfil its duties with greater zeal or ability. Since his return from the famous Antarctic expedition, I have had, as you are aware, much communication with him, with respect to the collections brought home by myself, and on other scientific subjects; and I cannot express too strongly my admiration at the accuracy of his varied knowledge, and at his powers of generalisation. From Dr. Hooker's disposition, no one, in my opinion, is more fitted to communicate to beginners a strong taste for those pursuits to which he is himself so ardently devoted. For the sake of the advancement of Botany in all its branches, your son has my warmest wishes for his success.
LETTER 581. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, Thursday {June 11th, 1847}.
Many thanks for your kindness about the lodgings — it will be of great use to me. (581/1. The British Association met at Oxford in 1847.) Please let me know the address if Mr. Jacobson succeeds, for I think I shall go on the 22nd and write previously to my lodgings. I have since had a tempting invitation from Daubeny to meet Henslow, etc., but upon the whole, I believe, lodgings will answer best, for then I shall have a secure solitary retreat to rest in.
I am extremely glad I sent the Laburnum (581/2. This refers to the celebrated form known as Cytisus Adami, of which a full account is given in "Variation of Animals and Plants," Volume I., Edition II., page 413. It has been supposed to be a seminal hybrid or graft-hybrid between C. laburnum and C. purpureus. It is remarkable for bearing "on the same tree tufts of dingy red, bright yellow, and purple flowers, borne on branches having widely different leaves and manner of growth." In a paper by Camuzet in the "Annales de la Societe d'Horticulture de Paris, XIII., 1833, page 196, the author tries to show that Cytisus Adami is a seminal hybrid between C. alpinus and C. laburnum. Fuchs ("Sitz. k. Akad. Wien," Bd. 107) and Beijerinck ("K. Akad. Amsterdam," 1900) have spoken on Cytisus Adami, but throw no light on the origin of the hybrid. See letters to Jenner Weir in the present volume.): the raceme grew in centre of tree, and had a most minute tuft of leaves, which presented no unusual appearance: there is now on one raceme a terminal bilateral {i.e., half yellow, half purple} flower, and on other raceme a single terminal pure yellow and one adjoining bilateral flower. If you would like them I will send them; otherwise I would keep them to see whether the bilateral flowers will seed, for Herbert (581/3. Dean Herbert.) says the yellow ones will. Herbert is wrong in thinking there are no somewhat analogous facts: I can tell you some, when we meet. I know not whether botanists consider each petal and stamen an individual; if so, there seems to me no especial difficulty in the case, but if a flower-bud is a unit, are not their flowers very strange?
I have seen Dillwyn in the "Gardeners' Chronicle," and was disgusted at it, for I thought my bilateral flowers would have been a novelty for you.
(581/4. In a letter to Hooker, dated June 2nd, 1847, Darwin makes a bold suggestion as to floral symmetry: — )
I send you a tuft of the quasi-hybrid Laburnum, with two kinds of flowers on same stalk, and with what strikes {me} as very curious (though I know it has been observed before), namely, a flower bilaterally different: one other, I observe, has half its calyx purple. Is this not very curious, and opposed to the morphological idea that a flower is a condensed continuous spire of leaves? Does it not look as if flowers were normally bilateral; just in the same way as we now know that the radiating star-fish, etc., are bilateral? The case reminds me of those insects with exactly half having secondary male characters and the other half female.
(581/5. It is interesting to note his change of view in later years. In an undated letter written to Mr. Spencer, probably in 1873, he says: "With respect to asymmetry in the flowers themselves, I remain contented, from all that I have seen, with adaptation to visits of insects. There is, however, another factor which it is likely enough may have come into play — viz., the protection of the anthers and pollen from the injurious effects of rain. I think so because several flowers inhabiting rainy countries, as A. Kerner has lately shown, bend their heads down in rainy weather.")
