Villa Franca, Baron de and Dr Glass. 1882. On new varieties of the sugar-cane produced by planting in apposition. By the Baron de Villa Franca, and Dr. Glass, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Rio de Janeiro. Communicated by the late Charles Darwin. Journal of Botany: British and Foreign vol. 20, p. 192.

RECORD: Villa Franca, Baron de and Dr Glass. 1882. On new varieties of the sugar-cane produced by planting in apposition. By the Baron de Villa Franca, and Dr. Glass, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Rio de Janeiro. Communicated by the late Charles Darwin. Journal of Botany: British and Foreign, 20: 192.

This paper, never published, was prepared by Darwin and George John Romanes. The paper can be gauged by a surviving draft in CUL-DAR207.4. An abstract of the paper was however published in the Journal of Botany and elsewhere. Although it was submitted under the names of Villa Franca and Dr Glass, Darwin's drafting of part of the paper makes it count as a Darwin publication. Depending on how one defines an intentional publication, this could be regarded as Darwin's final publication in a scientific journal.

Darwin apparently misread the name of the director of the gardens. He was Auguste François Marie Glaziou (1828-1906), a French botanist. Ignacio Francisco Silveira da Motta, Baron of Villa Franca (1815-1885), was a Brazilian politician and farmer.

The title alone was recorded in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London: Villa Franca, Baron de and Dr Glass. 1882. On new Varieties of the Sugar-cane produced by Planting in Apposition. By the Baron de Villa Franca and Dr. Glass, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Rio de Janeiro. Communicated by the late Charles Darwin, F.R.S., F.L.S. (Read 4 May) Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London: 30-31. For the background to this publication, see the following letters recorded in the Calendar: 12767, 12772, 13583, 13595, 13597, and especially, Correspondence vols. 28-30. Darwin to G. J. Romanes, 1 January 1881 in ML 1: 389-90 ( F1548.1 ). (Earlier published in C. A. Barber. 1896. Graft-hybrids of the sugar-cane. The Sugar-Cane, 28 (November): 578-9.) See also Darwin to G. J. Romanes 6 January 1882, Calendar 13600.

[page] 192

[Linnean Society of London] May 4 [1882]. ... On new varieties of the Sugar-Cane produced by planting in apposition, by the Baron de Villa Franca, and Dr. Glass, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Rio de Janeiro, communicated by the late Charles Darwin. In correspondence which had passed between the above-mentioned gentlemen, Mr. Darwin had expressed doubts as to whether two varieties could affect the character of the buds produced by either, it appearing more probable to him that the new variety was due to bud-variation. The Baron de Villa Franca thereupon forwarded a document signed by eight distinguished Brazilians, testifying to the fact that valuable varieties have been raised by the process in question. Dr. Glass furthermore describes in detail his early but fruitless attempts to graft two varieties of the sugar-cane, though he succeeded with another monocotyledon, viz., Dracaena.

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