Summary

Requests a quart of distilled water for photography to be sent in a clean bottle via the postman on the following day.

Summary

Hybrid varieties of pheasant and common fowl. Reply to CD queries.

Summary

Writes of the extension to Down House.

Summary

Is glad WED is in the sixth [form]. Discusses WED’s intention to become a barrister.

Summary

Recommends he read passages on bees by C. T. E. von Siebold [in On the true parthenogenesis in moths and bees (1857)].

Summary

Will be grateful for facts from Mr Linton on numbers of eggs from goldfinch–canary crosses.

Summary

Have all varieties been bred from the same set of eggs so that there can be no doubt they are all the same species?

Summary

CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.

CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.

CD’s method.

Diverging affinities in isolated genera.

Summary

Thanks AG for 2d part of "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403].

Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.

Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.

Summary

Sexes of algae.

Summary

Congratulations [on Mrs H’s delivery].

Balanus balanoides positively identified by CD.

Summary

Thanks for a kind note, and asks not to answer until better.

Summary

Thanks for information, which is just the amount he wanted.

Will not go to the BAAS meeting in Dublin: the frightful voyage deters him.

Summary

Will attend to any subject in Jamaica about which CD wants information.

Crithagra brasiliensis and canary refused to pair.

A collection of Jamaican land Mollusca will be presented to the British Museum.

Hurricanes are a considerable influence on diffusion of birds and insects.

Summary

Enumerates fossil mammals known in Secondary strata.

Lack of angiosperm plants in rocks older than Chalk is no reason to anticipate rarity of warm-blooded quadrupeds.

Summary

CD will advise W. F. Daniell on collecting.

Summary

Asks THH question on flow of glaciers after ice has been fractured and fragmented.

CD had to leave Royal Society lecture [joint paper by THH and J. Tyndall, "On the structure and motions of glaciers", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 327–46] before the end because of headache.

Summary

CD will advise Daniell not to apply for Royal Society grant.

CD’s experiment: fish fed seeds, which germinated when voided.

Summary

Sends specimens of Tortrix, which illustrate the extraordinary variation of markings in two or three species. In every family of Lepidoptera there seem to be species extremely prone to vary and in some localities they vary more than in others.

Summary

Thanks THH for his response on glacial movement. Hopes Tyndall will experiment on broken ice and explain how two pieces of ice can freeze together.

Sorry to hear of THH’s row with Richard Owen.