RECORD: Darwin, C. R. 1874.12.25-26. Trinidad U. montana / Draft of Descent Descent, pp. 246-248. CUL-DAR59.1.120. (John van Wyhe ed., 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and John van Wyhe, edited by John van Wyhe 10.2022. RN2
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 volumes CUL-DAR 54-61 contain material for Darwin's book Insectivorous plants (1875).
Utricularia is a genus of carnivorous plants known as bladderworts. These notes are for Darwin, C. R. 1875. Insectivorous plants. London: John Murray. (F1217)
"The social breadth of the network that Darwin drew on in his work on insectivorous plants was remarkable. The aristocratic horticulturist Dorothy Nevill hugely admired Darwin and was always eager to help by sending specimens from her well-stocked garden. ...[She] supplied Darwin with a specimen of Utricularia montana to work on. At first, Darwin mistook the empty stem tubers for bladders; when he found that the real bladders, which were very small and transparent and on the roots, captured prey, he exclaimed: 'I have hardly ever enjoyed a day more in my life than this day's work' (letter to D. F. Nevill, 18 September [1874]). Francis's new wife, Amy, drew the plant (letter to Francis Darwin, [17 September 1874])…Utricularia montana is an epiphytic species of bladderwort, native to the Antilles and northern South America. [It] is a synonym of U. alpina." Correspondence vol. 22, pp. xxviii, 447.
[120]
Dec. 25 /74 Trinidad U. montana Dried spec. from Kew
6 Bladders 1 [sketch] — object like this a flask formed of concave-cells.
probably a nematode 2 apparently a long very long-worm-shaped animal
3 with some object, possibly an alga.
6 Bladder from New Grenada plant — doubtfully whether any prey but I did not open all.
(The Trinidad plant grew amongst mosses & evidently as epiphyte) (The New Grenada plant seemed to have grown in muddy earth.—)
There were interesting unicellular alga, & one inch
Algæ within unicellular
Perhaps bladder largely serve as receptacle for water
[120v]
large horns, whilst the female ewes "generally speaking are without horns"; & in this breed, castration seems to produce a somewhat greater effect; so that if performed at an early in life age, the horns "remain almost undeveloped."* (* I am much obliged to Prof. V. Carus for having made enquiries for me in Saxony on this subject. H. von Nathusius (Viehzucht 1872 p. 64) says that the horns of sheep castrated at am early period either altogether disappear or remain as a mere rudiment; but I do not know whether he refers to merinos or to ordinary breeds) On the Guinea coast there is a breed in which the females are quite hornless do not never bear horns; & the rams after castration, as I saw in Mr Winwood Reade informs me. are quite destitute of horns. them. Again With all the many breeds of cattle again, both sexes of all breeds are either horned or hornless, for there is no breed in which the females alone are hornless, as is the case with some goats & sheep. After castration the horns of the males are greatly altered & lose their masculine characters altered, & instead of being short & thick, become much elongated longer than those of the cow, which thy otherwise resemble. The Antilope bezoartica offers a somewhat analogous case:
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
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