Dear Dyer,

Your praise of my book has pleased me much, though I fear it is too strong.¹ George Henslow has criticised my figures in the Gardener’s Chronicle, on no sufficient grounds as it appears to me.²

I am particularly obliged for your notes.³ My object in the introduction was merely as a sort of bond for my miscellaneous chapters, and I feared that I might have fallen into the grossest errors & omissions. Thanks about Mussænda; I found a note with this name on it among my papers & couldn’t remember the least what it meant.⁴

Do any of your friends care for what I suppose are Oceanic algæ, sent to me together with the enclosed printed scrap from Queensland.⁵ If of no use throw them in the fire, I thus cleverly relieve myself of all responsibility.

With many thanks, yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin