DARWIN, Charles, [letter on the transmutation of corn], in: Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (23 November 1844), p. 779

Folio; pp. viii, 880 [with:] approximately 300 pages of The Newspaper

Very good condition; elegant quarter leather binding with marbled boards by John Mylrea (label inside front cover); pages a little age-darkened but overall in excellent condition; title-page and index erroneously inserted from the 1843 volume of the Gardeners Chronicle

The Gardeners’ Chronicle for 1844, containing Darwin’s significant letter on the ‘transmutation’ of corn – his first public statement on evolution. The volume also includes four longer contributions by Darwin, one bearing on the question of heredity, as well as responses by Henslow and another naturalist, and an editorial by John Lindley on the ‘origin’ of plant species.

Through the first half of 1844 Darwin composed his famous ‘sketch’ of a theory of evolution by natural selection – a 230 page manuscript first published in 1909 and now known as the ‘foundation’ of On the Origin of Species. Shortly after finishing the sketch, Darwin was surprised to read John Lindley’s 17 August editorial in The Gardeners’ Chronicle (p. 555 here), concerning ‘transmutation’. Lindley gave historical examples in which seeds had germinated as unexpected species, and went on to explore the deeper question of the ‘origin’ of plant species. Lindley concluded that ‘a good many persons’ should ‘try the experiment’ of transmuting wheat, rye, oats and barley, which he thought might be ‘accidental offsets from some unsuspected species’ (p. 555).

Darwin soon wrote to Lindley, and, though the letter itself is now lost, Lindley quoted from it in his editorial notes of 23 November (p. 779 here). Significantly, Darwin agreed ‘that so curious a subject is well worth investigation,’ adding ‘even if it should prove to be only a history of error’. Darwin went on to quote examples similar to Lindley’s from James Anderson’s Recreations in Agriculture of 1800. Natural selection was clearly on Darwin’s mind, as he suggested that if transmutation was not in play, perhaps from a range of seeds only the ‘hardier plant’ would grow.

In addition to Lindley’s provocative August editorial, and Darwin’s November letter, the volume contains three more contributions by Darwin: on manure and drainage (with a response by another naturalist); on ‘the origin of mould’; and on white-tipped leaves. Here Darwin makes another suggestive comment:

These facts may appear trivial; but I think the first appearance, even if not permanent, of any peculiarity which tends to become hereditary [...] deserves being recorded.