Summary

[Notes on conversations with J. D. Hooker.] Geographical distribution; diffusion and distribution of species. Island and mountain floras; means of migration (high-roads, icebergs).

Summary

ARW’s view of migration of plants from mountain to mountain gains support from case described in Nature [23 (1880): 125–6] by J. G. Baker. Identical species of alpine plants found in African mountains and Madagascar.

Summary

Responds to CD’s questions about mountain vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope. The distribution of some plants provides problems for both migration and special creation hypotheses.

Summary

On land migration of plants. The case in Nature is striking but CD doubts that seeds of plants could be blown from mountains of Abyssinia to mountains of Madagascar.

Summary

Reports in detail on the 20 Feb 1835 earthquake and on volcanic activity into December of 1835. Encloses a letter sent to him describing the earthquake.

Summary

Miscellaneous personal matters.

What does CD think of Robert Mallet’s earthquake theory? Would it not account for strata dipping at base of range of mountains?

Summary

Discussion of Mrs Agassiz’s letter [to Mary Lyell, forwarded to CD] regarding S. American glacial action,

with comments on Bunbury’s letter on temperate plants.

Refers to opinions of Agassiz, David Forbes, Hooker, and CD on glacial period and glaciers.

Wishes he had published a long chapter on glacial period [Natural selection, pp. 535–66] written ten years ago.

Tells of death of his sister, Catherine, and other family matters.

Summary

Encloses article on local immunity to tuberculosis. Has he interpreted CD’s views correctly? Believes the immunity notable in areas like Iceland or mountain areas is due to local conditions, not natural selection. Describes his sanatorium in mountains of Silesia and medical criticism of his work.

Summary

Has received [read?] CB’s two works [Chamois hunting in the mountains of Bavaria (2d ed., 1860) and Forest creatures (1871)] and has made use of them in his present book [Descent].

CB’s descriptions of the Tyrol make CD long to be "strong and young again to ramble over the mountains".

Summary

Asks whether Allegheny Mountains are sufficiently continuous so that plants could travel from north to south along them.

Hopes AG’s work on geographical distribution is progressing, as he has questions on plants common to Europe which do not range up to Arctic.

Are intermediate varieties less numerous in individuals than the varieties they connect?

Summary

Thanks CD for noticing some difficulties in his hypothesis. Concedes that there is no proof that higher plants are more intolerant of carbon dioxide than lower plants. Argues that the main difference between the lowlands and the high mountains in Palaeozoic times would be the much greater climatic fluctuations that would occur on the mountains. Discusses carbon dioxide diffusion in the Palaeozoic atmosphere. Thinks that the large number of species and genera peculiar to high mountains favours the assumption that "their diffusion must date from a geologically remote period" [see ML 2: 20–2].

Summary

More praise for Himalayan journals.

How remote was glacial action in Himalayas?

Implies Himalayas were birthplace of many plants.

Final volume of Cirripedia to be printed in two or three months.

Summary

Falconer’s misbehaviour.

Geology of Khashia [Khasi] mountains. Speculations on mountain building and origin of Himalayas.

Summary

List of mountains with their heights.

Summary

Asks for information about birds eating berries of a mountain-ash.

Summary

Suggests revisions in JDH’s 1877 Presidential Address to the Royal Society [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. (1877): 427–46].

Summary

Response to CD’s notes [on Island life]:

1. On relation of paucity of fossils to coldness of water;

2. Cessation of the glacial period;

3. Rate of deposit and geological time;

4. The importance of preoccupation (by plants) in relation to plants arriving later.

Charge of speculative explanations is just.

Defends plausibility of migration of plants from mountain to mountain.

Summary

Responds to JDH on history of plant geography.

Opinion of Humboldt.

Origin of higher phanerogams.

Importance of the occurrence of south temperate forms in the Northern Hemisphere.

Summary

Species migration since the Pliocene. Effect of the glacial epoch. Present geographical distribution, especially similarities of mountain floras, explained by such migration; mountain summits as remnants of a once continuous flora and fauna.

Cross-fertilisation in Fumariaceae.

Summary

Botanical evidence is against F. B. White’s origin of St Helena fauna. JDH holds flora is S. African. Since plants must arrive before insects, if fauna is Palearctic then flora survived glacial period. Flora not Miocene since old and relic orders are absent. Suggests S. African west coastal mountains as insects’ origin.