Charles Darwin plants and seeds

One of the real pleasures afforded in reading Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the discovery of areas of research on which he never published, but which interested him deeply. We can gain many insights about Darwin’s research methods by following these ‘letter trails’ and observing how correspondence served as a vital research tool for him.

One such story begins with the preparation of a new edition of On the Origin of Species (the fourth) in 1866. Darwin made substantive changes to every new edition of Origin; often the changes were inspired by recent criticism or new research. od Words entitled the ‘Reign of law’. The article contained an argument about beauty in nature.

The duke, who was best known for his interest in geology and ornithology, claimed:

Spangles of the emerald are no better in the battle of life than spangles of the ruby. apphire. … The evidence is indeed abundant, that ornament and variety are provided for in nature for themselves and by themselves, separate from all other use whatever. Any theory on the origin of species which is too narrow to hold this fact, must be taken back for enlargement and repair.

Reign of Law, p. 231.

Campbell’s was only the latest statement of a common argument against Darwin’s theory, one he had dealt with already in Origin but which he now felt compelled to expand on as he prepared a fourth edition of the book.

Darwin began with the argument that ‘the idea of the beauty of any particular object obviously depends on the mind of man, irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind, ’ and continued, ‘On the view of beautiful objects having been created for man’s gratification, it ought to be shown that there was less beauty on the face of the earth before man appeared than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet?’

After mentioning sexual selection as another instance of beauty-with-a-purpose, Darwin turned to the plant world and remarked:

that the gaily-coloured fruit of the spindle-wood tree and the scarlet berries of the holly are beautiful objects, will be admitted by every one. But this beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and beasts, that the fruit may be devoured and the seeds thus disseminated: I infer that this is the case from having as yet found in every instance that seeds, which are embedded within a fruit of any kind, that is within a fleshy or pulpy envelope, if it be coloured of any brilliant tint, or merely rendered conspicuous by being coloured white or black, are always disseminated by being first devoured.