Summary

Is provoked by trouble he is having writing Insectivorous plants.

Curious case of an unknown form of Glaucium in earth covered with slag for 1400 years.

Summary

Hugh Falconer’s misbehaviour.

Waiting out rains at Brian Hodgson’s.

Will make botanical transverse section of Himalayas from plains to snow.

Arrangements to pass Sikkim Rajah’s territory.

No evidence of glacial or diluvial action in sub-Himalayan mountains. No evidence of detrital coal formation.

Hodgson’s replies to CD on introduced species and hybrids.

Summary

Sabine’s address, printed in the Reader [4 (1864): 708–9], is good on the whole. Sends Huxley’s account of the row.

Praises John Ruskin’s eloquent reply to Jukes.

Summary

Etty [Henrietta Darwin] very ill with diphtheria.

Summary

Pleasure at receiving CD’s scientific letters to JDH and Hodgson.

The H. Wedgwoods’ pecuniary loss.

Condolences at CD’s father’s death.

Rajah harasses JDH’s work. Lack of supplies, rain, malarial valleys, and landslips make going difficult. Cannot get into Tibet.

"Twenty species [of plants] here [Camp Sikkim] to one there [Tierra del Fuego?] always are asking me the vexed question, ""where do we come from?""."

From observation of terraces descending to steppes and plains of India, he thinks that the Himalayas were once a grand fiord coast.

Has information CD requested on Yangsma valley. JDH’s detailed hypothesis of origin of dam there. Does not agree with CD’s interpretation.

Summary

Does not know Dr Mahoney.

Thanks CD for offer of photographs.

His mother’s health is no worse.

Summary

JDH not happy with CD’s explanation of the absence of north temperate forms in the Southern Hemisphere, given his explanation for the spread of sub-arctic forms to the south. [CD’s note is in response to JDH’s criticism.]

Summary

Has not heard from Mivart. He is not so good a Christian as JDH and cannot forgive a man for malicious lying merely because he says he is sorry. Does not think Mivart will apologise. Still thinks the simple, most manly thing, is to write to Mivart directly and tell him what he thinks of him.

Summary

Asks CD to send W. R. Grove titles and place of publication of the Müller [Für Darwin (1864)] and Walsh (Walsh 1864–5) papers he referred to in his address [BAAS lecture at Nottingham, see 5135].

Summary

Questions on JDH’s sketch comparing floras of Australia, New Zealand, and western S. America; wishes to know botanical relations between other southern islands. Botanico-geographical discussions and comments on books sent by JDH.

Summary

Gives references to experiments on cowslip for W. H. Harvey.

Suggests possible sources of error in results. Feels evidence is overwhelming that cowslip and primrose are varieties.

Has received laudatory verses on the Origin from some botanist; suspects Francis Boott.

Summary

CD agrees cultivated plants may begin to vary after some time and then may vary suddenly, but cautions JDH on lack of evidence. His explanation is that small variations are ignored until they accumulate.

Summary

CD upset because salted seeds do not float.

Summary

Forwards letter from Asa Gray.

Bentham is very agitated by Origin. CD over-emphasises natural selection. His theory accounts for too much and would be improved by unburdening it of natural selection.

Summary

CD partly right. JDH was calling "stratification" what CD calls "foliation". Answers CD’s question on cleavage foliation in Himalayas. Glacial action.

Charmed by CD’s Admiralty instructions on geology [in Manual of scientific enquiry (1849), Collected papers 1: 227–50], but complains he does not give prices of books and instruments he recommends.

Summary

Antarctic plants most difficult to account for on any theory. Lyell’s iceberg transportal of seeds.

Are there more representative species of American origin in Tristan da Cunha than in Kerguelen land?

Summary

Answers CD’s questions relating to the flora of the Galapagos. [See 889.]

Summary

Thanks for CD’s comments on "sketch".

Lengthy discussion of geographical distribution and island floras.

Has been "delighted with" [Robert Chambers’] Vestiges [of creation (1844)].

Galapagos flora work goes on well.

Summary

JDH criticises C. J. F. Bunbury’s paper on Madeira [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 1 (1857): 1–35].

Absence of Ophrys on Madeira suggests to JDH a sequence in creation of groups.

Why are flightless insects common in desert?

Australian endemism.

Summary

CD regrets he used "creation" in Origin when he meant "appeared".

An Oken-like article in "Owenian style" in Athenæum.

Tropical plants continue to be troublesome.