Summary

Would have liked to come to lunch, but has been talking so much to Hooker that he has no strength left.

Summary

Thanks CD for parasitic worms [see 6858] specimens. Supports "fact of succession".

Summary

Asks whether he may come with F. C. Donders to visit CD.

Summary

Asks about Charles Bell’s statement concerning contraction of eye muscles. Asks whether such contraction is related to secretion of tears.

Summary

Reports on events at Exeter [BAAS] meeting. G. G. Stokes made a first-rate President.

Huxley "poured boiling oil" over James McCann in answer to his "conceited dogmatic sermon".

F. A. W. Miquel is coming to stay.

Summary

Sends excerpt on polygamous breeding habits of Asiatic elephants by Lieut. Johnstone [Proc. Asiat. Soc. Bengal (1868): 128]. [See Descent 1: 268.]

Summary

Wants observations on a Papilio to see whether ticking noise is confined to one sex.

Experiments on self-sterility.

Will send copy of his orchid paper ["Fertilisation of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56].

Eschscholzia when self-fertilised, produced pods.

Summary

Sends a lower molar of fossil horse from Quito. Curious as to its species, especially in view of Owen’s findings in Mexico.

Summary

Wishes to borrow a paper by R. G. Haliburton on superstitions connected with sneezing [see 5635].

Summary

His observations on young of Theridion lineatum reveal no characteristics distinguishing one from another;

quotes N. Westring on stridulation in Theridion serratipes [see Descent 1: 339].

Summary

Admires GJ’s book [Die Darwin’sche Theorie (1869)].

Asks about plumage of rejected male pheasant.

Summary

F. C. Donders has been to lunch – a good "Darwinian"!

JDH’s speech of resignation [as BAAS President] at Exeter was charming [Rep. BAAS (1869)]. JDH should have been an ambassador.

Has received Indian census.

Is unusually well.

Summary

Gives some observations and opinions on the appearance and behaviour of mandrills.

Summary

Encloses last instalment of data on colour of women’s hair and conjugal selection. Fears results are inconclusive.

Summary

Proportion of sexes in rats.

Summary

Since March has been living in Heidelberg, where his wife is studying mathematics and physics.

The Russian translation of Variation has been printed in his absence; he will bring a copy to Down if he receives one from Russia.

Summary

Thanks EB for his attempts to find out about the mandrills;

sorry to hear that he has been so badly treated by the manager of Land and Water.

Summary

On stridulation of Coleoptera, Trox sabulosus, Mutilla. [See Descent 1: 380.]

Summary

Thanks SHS for papers he has sent.

Summary

Thanks for CD’s ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56].

Although Thomas Meehan’s paper ["Variations in Epigaea repens", Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. (1868): 153–6] shows great variability in this genus, JTM sees a need to qualify the generalisation that there is as much variation in the wild as under domestication. He knows no evidence for a constant proportion between variability in the wild and under cultivation.

Observations on correlation between leaf size and exposure to sun and shade.

Has evidence for two varieties of Ophrys apifera in England, which live in mutually exclusive colonies.