Summary

Case of cat transmitting a habit to her offspring.

Summary

Thanks CD for his good opinion of his book, What Mr Darwin saw,

and his expressions [concerning W. L. Garrison] "which will be treasured by his children".

Summary

Corrects Werner Hoffmeister, cited in Earthworms, p. 63: earthworms do not block their holes to keep out Scolopendras but to prevent evaporation.

Summary

Relates a variety of facts about sexual selection in birds. [See Descent 2: 104–5.]

Summary

About a dog that acquired habits from a cat and her kittens.

Summary

On the changes in plumage of scarlet ibis at the zoo in breeding season.

Summary

Thinks CD overestimates earthworms’ role in creating mould. Gives some observations on worms and questions about their breeding habits.

Summary

SB has decided to lay the matter [the subject of 12393 and 12396] before the public and has written to the Athenæum stating the facts. [Athenæum 31 Jan 1880.]

Summary

Sends drawings of several of Dr Erasmus Darwin’s residences, together with suggestions of sources of other material.

Summary

A ball and two concerts at Shrewsbury; guests at the Darwins’: Mr and Mrs Mathew, three Mr Clives, Emma Wedgwood.

Summary

Delighted with mechanisms of Salvia and Viola. How can anyone who compares structure of Viola cornuta and common violet still suppose them to be separate creations?

Summary

Discusses his health following a visit to Dr C[lark?]. Has made an appointment for CD.

Summary

Sends a letter he wrote in 1862 [see 3482].

Summary

Sends a list of the work he feels should be done at Beesby [Lincolnshire] to put the farm in order. Hopes to get purchase deeds completed by 10 October.

Summary

Encloses a copy of his paper on mimicry [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1873): 153–61].

Asks whether large variations are more often limited to one sex than slight ones.

Summary

RT has sent his observations on orchids to CD. Has found only one case of an insect with a pollinium adhering to it.

Summary

Sending second codicil for CD to sign.

Summary

WSD is pleased that CD approves his index draft [for Variation]; notes his objection to long list of references under "Dogs" and will try to find a principle for shortening it. He has not indexed all authors’ names; is this practice satisfactory?

Summary

Reply to CD’s letter in Nature ["Flowers of the primrose", Collected papers 2: 183–4]. She has a canary that eats primroses.

Summary

Sends CD his version for children of Journal of researches [What Mr Darwin saw].

During the last illness of his father, William Lloyd Garrison, WPG showed him CD’s passages on slavery.

"In combating the enemies of freedom in this country he [W. L. Garrison] emancipated himself from the theology the destruction of which is perhaps your highest title to the honor of your own time and the blessings of posterity."