Summary

Has finished Climbing plants;

resuming work on Variation.

Sends abstract of John Scott’s paper [see 4332].

Has received review of Herbert Spencer but cannot believe AG wrote it unless he has muddled his brains with metaphysics.

Summary

Sends question [missing] for an ornithologist.

Is plodding on at Variation.

Has added to Climbing plants.

Summary

Believes AG’s pamphlet will do natural selection "right good service".

Summary

Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.

Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.

Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.

Summary

Opinions and reviews of Origin.

CD’s view on design in nature; although he does not believe in the necessity of design, he finds it hard to conclude that everything is the result of "brute force".

Comments on Owen’s review of Origin [Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532].

Summary

Has received Chauncey Wright’s article.

Reports on favourable response to AG’s pamphlet.

Summary

Agassiz is strongly opposed to Origin, but CD thinks K. E. von Baer may come out in support.

Discusses the possibility of favourable monstrosities in the light of Theophilus Parsons’ essay ["On the origin of species", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 30 (1860): 1–13].

Summary

CD is glad there is to be an American edition of Origin printed from the corrected 2d English edition.

Summary

The pamphlet of AG’s Origin reviews [Natural selection not inconsistent with natural theology (1861)]. CD will bear half the costs of publishing.

Will write to Huxley about Chauncey Wright’s review of Origin.

Summary

Comments on AG’s memoir on Japanese plants [see 2599]; relationship of Japanese flora to N. American.

Summary

Discusses recent reviews of Origin and has made a note on Owen’s [see 2737].

Has become interested in the floral structures of orchids.

Notes his recent observations on Primula; believes he has found male and female forms.

Summary

Sends historical preface and corrections for American edition of Origin;

would have liked AG’s review [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 153–84] at the head.

Agrees with AG’s assessment of weak points.

Summary

Talks of getting copies of AG’s Atlantic Monthly articles for distribution in England.

Describes the pollinating mechanisms of Orchis pyramidalis and Spiranthes autumnalis.

Summary

Is thinking of publishing AG’s three-part Origin review [from Atlantic Monthly] in England.

Summary

Has received second part of AG’s Atlantic Monthly article ["Darwin on the origin of species", 6 (1860): 109–16, 229–39], and would like to have it reprinted in England with the first part.

Regrets no reviewer has touched upon embryology, which he feels provides one of his strongest arguments.

Summary

Emma and Leonard have scarlet fever.

Houstonia seems "a grand case"; J. T. Rothrock should publish his observations on the two pollens and the reciprocal action of two hermaphrodites.

Rhexia glandulosa offers nothing odd, but Heterocentron will turn out something marvellous like Lythrum.

Would like to know what AG thinks of last chapter of Orchids.

Summary

AG’s article on climbing plants [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 40 (1865): 273–82] is admirable and complimentary.

Reports Fritz Müller’s observations on climbers.

Experiments on dimorphism with Mitchella and Pulmonaria.

Summary

AG’s review of Alphonse de Candolle’s paper [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 35 (1863): 430–44] is excellent.

Does not AG consider that orchids oppose Oswald Heer’s view that species arise suddenly by monstrosities?

Infers that AG cannot explain the angles of phyllotaxy; has been looking at Carl Nägeli on the subject.

Reports Gaston de Saporta’s belief that natural selection will ultimately triumph in France.

Is working slowly at Variation.

Reports his observations on the imperfect flowers of Viola and Oxalis.

Summary

Is glad AG will publish [pamphlet of his reviews of Origin]. Insists on bearing the costs. Encloses list of institutions and individuals to whom he would send copies.

Summary

Greatly praises AG’s discussion of Origin in Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. [4 (1860): 411–15; 424–6].

Mentions other reviews of Origin; believes the BAAS meeting at Oxford greatly advanced the subject. Has heard his views are gaining ground in Germany.