The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1863.05.09 Euphorbia amygdaloides. CUL-DAR49.91. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 1.2022. RN1

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR49 contains notes for Natural selection chap. 3 on 'On...organic beings occasionally crossing' or dichogamy.

"Leith Hill Place, near Dorking, Surrey. 1842 Josiah Wedgwood [III] bought it, about 4,000 acres, on resigning his partnership in the family firm, home c.1847-80 Also home of Margaret Susan Wedgwood (Mrs Vaughan Williams), before 1944 and later. It was passed to Hervey Vaughan Williams, and in 1944 on his death to Ralph Vaughan Williams, who gave it to the National Trust. They leased it to Ralph Wedgwood, his cousin and close friend." (Paul van Helvert & John van Wyhe, Darwin: A Companion, 2021)

[91]

May 9th. 1863 Leith Hill. Euphorbia amygdaloides visited by numbers of Diptera, chiefly Sylphidæ of many forms, which are dusted with pollen.

Crescent discs secrete on surface nectar. Central female flower first protrudes & stigmas down & stands upright, & at this period gets plainly fertilised; secondly male flowers in [illeg] head open (so reverse of Begonia in which male flowers open first) & at this period pistil has bent rectangularly to get out of way of short

Dichogam

[91v]

stamens. - More than this, all flowers at same period (with rare exceptions) on same plant bear either male or female flowers mature; so effectually dioicous. - Functionally all flowers on same head may be said to compose a hermaphrodite & in this view the plant is a female dichogam (like Plantago lanceolata), but differs from most dichogam not all pistils or all stamens are same individual being [illeg]

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