The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1852.04. Hooker says Ranunculaceæ & Magnoliaceæ have been justly reckoned highest. CUL-DAR205.9.246. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 9.2021. RN1

NOTE: The brown crayon number '22' indicates that this document was filed by Darwin in his portfolio for the subject of Palaeontology: extinction.

Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR205.9 contains notes on palaeontology and geology [regarding theory of evolution].

[246]

[in margin:] How changed now!

April 1852

Hooker says Ranunculaceæ & Magnoliaceæ have been justly reckoned highest, by all Botanists for having most distinct & perfect organs as bracts – calyx - corolla, many stamens & not united carpels: - So standard very different from animal Kingdom. Stamens or pistils when compared throughout vegetable Kingdom cannot be said to present a scale of perfection, as in nervous systems amongst animals. Indeed perhaps stamens may be considered on individuals. A plant, as remarked, by Hooker with one stamen, this does not perform its function any better than a plant with 50 stamens; not as the one heart of vertebrates - higher than several hearts of the lower animals

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)