Summary

Sent off Corydalis. Observations on Corydalis pistils.

Summary

Sends GB a selection of reviews of the Origin from his collection of about 90, with his opinion of some of them.

Summary

Thanks for information on Primula ovules. From what DO says the pollen-tubes ought to find their way to the micropyle.

Summary

CD’s Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105].

Sending up-to-date railway map of southern region.

Summary

JL’s review of Lyell’s Antiquity of man (1863) [Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 211–19].

Owen’s review of W. B. Carpenter in Athenæum [28 Mar 1863, pp. 417–19].

Summary

Asks CD whether he knows of "anything worth looking at" that has appeared abroad on his theory of the origin of species.

Summary

After finishing vol. 2 [of Naturalist on the river Amazons], CD still has only praise. Remarks that his family is also enjoying the book. He regrets having finished, since he so enjoyed the descriptions.

Summary

Encourages JS to publish on sterility of orchids and to experiment on Passiflora.

Doubted Hooker’s poppy case.

Describes case of primrose with three pistils: when pulled apart allowed pollen to be placed directly on ovules. This supports JS’s explanation of H. Crüger’s case.

Summary

Thanks for LAR’s book [The land and freshwater mollusks indigenous to, or naturalised in, the British Isles (1863)].

Summary

Thanks CD for specimens which show that an abnormality in one genus is normal in another, which bears on CD’s views on descent.

Summary

Conducted crosses on Gladiolus varieties exactly according to CD’s letter. Flowers of same variety are self-sterile, whether from the same plant or not.

Summary

Working on monstrous Primula. Is ovule anatropous as Asa Gray says, or amphitropous? Does he know natural path of pollen tubes in Primula. Can the tube enter the ovule by the chalaza?

Summary

Provides evidence of self-sterility in Gladiolus.

Has observed three seed-leaves in some Dianthus seedlings.

Cannot cross, or grow from seed, Dielytra spectabilis.

Summary

Has obtained fossils from Gibraltar that he believes are human. Requests Lyell’s address so that he can send the bones.

Summary

Likes JDH’s review of Alphonse de Candolle [Mémoires et souvenirs de A. P. de Candolle (1862)].

Falconer’s article on Lyell ["Primitive man. What led to the question?", Athenæum 4 Apr 1863, pp. 459–60] too severe.

CD has written a letter to the Athenæum "to say, under the cloak of attacking Heterogeny, a word in my own defence" [Collected papers 2: 78–80].

Bates’s Travels [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)] are excellent.

Summary

Reminds CD of their acquaintance at Ilkley Wells; encloses portrait of self;

describes the topography, trade, commerce, produce, and population of São Paulo province.

Sends pieces of rock blasted for railway for CD to analyse.

Summary

Grieved by Falconer’s and Prestwich’s treatment of Lyell.

Reproductive anatomy of the common ash reminds CD of JDH’s Welwitschia because of its transitional forms.

Pleased JDH encourages Oliver to do orchids.

Summary

Interested in ACR’s Presidential Address [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 19 (1863): xxix–lii] on the breaks in succession (of formations). Hopes ACR will provide a diagram of breaks, with the percentage of fossils that "pass upwards", i.e., continue to appear.

Horrified at Huxley’s geology.

Wishes ACR would discuss "creeps".

Summary

Preparations under way to move to London account for delay in thanking CD for his review [Collected papers 2: 87–92].

His book is finished, and he is sending a copy to CD; owing to the great expense few copies will be sent to reviewers.

Summary

Attacks the doctrine of "heterogeny" (spontaneous generation during each geological period) as completely lacking in evidence.

Defends natural selection as connecting large classes of facts in natural history. That certain forms have not changed since remote epochs is not an objection of any force.