This volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically: Volume 23 includes letters from 1875, the year in which Darwin wrote and published Insectivorous plants, a botanical work that was a great success with the reading public, and started writing Cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. The volume contains an appendix on the 1875 anti-vivisection debates, with which Darwin was closely involved, giving evidence before a Royal Commission on the subject.

Reviews of earlier volumes:‘Nothing in the recent history of science quite tops the achievement of the volumes of Darwin correspondence. It is our own Human Genome Project.'

Source: Annals of Science

‘… a superb series … beautifully produced, beautifully readable, efficiently indexed, supportively but not gossipily annotated.'

Source: The Times Literary Supplement

‘Every now and then … publishing and academe work together to produce books so splendid that it seems ungrateful not to acquire them: this promises to be another such.'

Source: The Guardian

‘… this authoritative work is a model of scholarship in both its comprehensiveness and supporting documentation which provides a rich source of background, biographical and bibliographical detail.'

Source: The Naturalist

‘These volumes are indeed treasures of high scholarship … every real science library needs this series.'

Source: Trends in Ecology and Evolution

'… slowly but surely we are getting an unbelievable source of information on one of the greatest of scientists who ever lived and thought and worked. Who knows what treasures future generations will uncover? For now, as always, the edition is exemplary, with huge amounts of pertinent information in the notes and with amazingly accurate transcriptions of Darwin’s appalling handwriting. A true monument of scholarship. My fervent hope is that I shall live to see the completion.'

Michael Ruse Source: The Quarterly Review of Biology

'… this latest volume of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin shares the same high production values, attention to detail and scholarly scrupulousness evident in all its predecessors. Amongst the six appendices, for example, are a list of all the periodical reviews of Insectivorous Plants and a hugely valuable account of Darwin’s dealings with the question of vivisection, including the text of his testimony to the Royal Commission on the vexed issue.'

Gowan Dawson Source: British Journal for the History of Science