Sir Francis Darwin FLS FRS FRSE (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin.
Born~Died Aug 16, 1848 ~ Sep 19, 1925Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 3:53 PM
Sir Francis DarwinFLSFRSFRSE1 (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin.2
Biography
Francis Darwin was born at Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the third son and seventh child of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood. He was educated at Clapham Grammar School.3
Francis Darwin worked with his father on experiments dealing with plant movements, specifically phototropism. They co-authored The Power of Movement in Plants (1880) and Francis Darwin published a second expanded edition of Insectivorous Plants (1888) after his father's death.5 Their experiments showed that the of a young grass seedling directs its growth toward the light by comparing the responses of seedlings with covered and uncovered coleoptiles. These observations would later lead to the discovery of .
This page is based on “Francis Darwin” from English Wikipedia, (r1337331706) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.
Darwin was nominated by his father to the Linnean Society of London in 1875,6 and was elected as a Fellow of the Society on 2 December 1875.7 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 June 1882,1 the same year in which his father died. Darwin edited The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (1887), and produced some books of letters from the correspondence of Charles Darwin; The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887) and More Letters of Charles Darwin (1905). He also edited Thomas Huxley's On the Reception of the Origin of Species (1887).
He is buried in Cambridge.9 His daughter, Frances Cornford, was later buried with him.
Family
Darwin was married three times and widowed twice. First, he married Amy Richenda Ruck in 1874, but she died in 1876 four days after the birth of their son Bernard Darwin, who was later to become a golf writer. She was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Corris, North Wales.10 According to a letter written by Charles Darwin to his close friend, Joseph Dalton Hooker: " I never saw anyone suffer so much as poor Frank. He has gone to N. Wales to bury the body in a little church-yard amongst the mountains".
Browne, E. Janet (2002). Charles Darwin: vol. 2 The Power of Place. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-7126-6837-3.
Further reading
Ayres, Peter. "The Aliveness of Plants: The Darwins at the Dawn of Plant Science" London: PIckering & Chatto, 2008. ISBN 978-1-85196-970-8
Darwin, Francis Sacheverell. (1927). Travels in Spain and the East, 1808-1810. Cambridge University press (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00431-2)
"2 Dec. 1875. Darwin, Francis, M.B. Down, Beckenham, Kent." in: The Linnean Society of London: List of the Linnean Society of London, 1876. [London:] Printed by Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. p.10. ↩
Sir Francis DarwinFLSFRSFRSE1 (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin.2
Biography
Francis Darwin was born at Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the third son and seventh child of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood. He was educated at Clapham Grammar School.3
Francis Darwin worked with his father on experiments dealing with plant movements, specifically phototropism. They co-authored The Power of Movement in Plants (1880) and Francis Darwin published a second expanded edition of (1888) after his father's death. Their experiments showed that the of a young grass seedling directs its growth toward the light by comparing the responses of seedlings with covered and uncovered coleoptiles. These observations would later lead to the discovery of .
Darwin was nominated by his father to the Linnean Society of London in 1875,6 and was elected as a Fellow of the Society on 2 December 1875.7 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 June 1882,1 the same year in which his father died. Darwin edited The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (1887), and produced some books of letters from the correspondence of Charles Darwin; The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887) and More Letters of Charles Darwin (1905). He also edited Thomas Huxley's On the Reception of the Origin of Species (1887).
He is buried in Cambridge.9 His daughter, Frances Cornford, was later buried with him.
Family
Darwin was married three times and widowed twice. First, he married Amy Richenda Ruck in 1874, but she died in 1876 four days after the birth of their son Bernard Darwin, who was later to become a golf writer. She was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Corris, North Wales.10 According to a letter written by Charles Darwin to his close friend, Joseph Dalton Hooker: " I never saw anyone suffer so much as poor Frank. He has gone to N. Wales to bury the body in a little church-yard amongst the mountains".
Browne, E. Janet (2002). Charles Darwin: vol. 2 The Power of Place. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-7126-6837-3.
Further reading
Ayres, Peter. "The Aliveness of Plants: The Darwins at the Dawn of Plant Science" London: PIckering & Chatto, 2008. ISBN 978-1-85196-970-8
Darwin, Francis Sacheverell. (1927). Travels in Spain and the East, 1808-1810. Cambridge University press (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00431-2)
"2 Dec. 1875. Darwin, Francis, M.B. Down, Beckenham, Kent." in: The Linnean Society of London: List of the Linnean Society of London, 1876. [London:] Printed by Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. p.10. ↩