Summary

It is not carpal or tarsal bones that are increased [in six-fingered men] but generally only the digits and metacarpals.

Pectoral fins of fish and sharks.

Asks THH to check P. M. Roget’s statement that there is a rudiment of a sixth digit in frogs.

[P.S. missing from original.]

Summary

Suggests a new school for CD’s son [Horace].

Summary

Sends "tendrilliferous" plants.

Plans visit to Down.

Naudin’s paper on tendrils [Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 9 (1863): 180–203].

T. V. Wollaston snubs Bates’s work.

Summary

On holiday; cannot answer CD’s questions.

Summary

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

Summary

Ill health.

At work on Variation.

Reading JDH on Welwitschia.

Letter from Lyell defends his position on species.

Anger at Owen.

John Lubbock’s lectures.

Summary

British attitude towards America: not hate as Asa Gray thinks, but contempt.

Summary

Thanks for news about fertilisation of Melastomataceae.

Discusses fertilisation of orchids.

Mentions observations by John Scott.

Asks about "bud-variations".

Summary

Thanks JS for orchid paper [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50]. JS presents excellent new facts on sterility of orchids.

His argument that coloured primroses are not hybrids is good, as is idea of discovering primrose parentage by breeding for colours.

Summary

Has been writing a notice of H. W. Bates’s "capital book" [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)].

P. M. Duncan’s coral paper [J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 29 (1863): 406–58] strengthens SPW’s belief in the general diffusion of marine forms westward in the course of time.

Summary

Flora of Cameroons shakes JDH’s faith in ability to explain past or present migrations. Sees need for a major novel explanation such as natural selection, glacial cold, or continental connections.

Lyell in a bad way about feud with Falconer.

JDH’s opinion of Wallace, Bates, J. E. Gray, Owen, Asa Gray, Lubbock, and Bentham.

Bentham’s Linnean Society address [see 4118].

Summary

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

Has not published much because he would be ignored as a gardener; hence he is looking for a foreign appointment.

Has prepared orchid sterility paper at CD’s suggestion [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50].

Summary

Has a letter from Haast on the spreading of European plants.

Summary

Will supply CD with information "as far as my knowledge extends".

Suggests CD visit him.

Summary

Has seen some curious hybrid ducks and geese of Bartlett’s. Bartlett will do experiments suggested by CD when he has time.

Summary

Congratulates CL on finding Arctic shells.

Comments on paper by E. B. Hunt ["On the origin, growth, substructure and chronology of the Florida reef", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 35 (1863): 197–210].

Mentions J. D. Dana’s health.

George Bentham’s statement on species [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix].

Praises Bates’s book [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)].

Summary

Describes a letter he has written to the Athenæum in which he mentions CL’s views on species modification ["Doctrine of heterogeny", Collected papers 2: 78–80].

Comments on criticism of Lyell’s book [Antiquity] by Falconer and others.

Mentions his eczema.

Invites the Lyells to visit.

Summary

Relates events at Down;

asks WED to make some observations on Lythrum.

His present hobby-horse is tendrils.

Summary

Doubts Decaisne’s report of larkspur self-fertilisation.

Enthusiastically observes climbing plants. Needs to know how novel his observations are. Finds R. J. H. Dutrochet has made similar observations, so he has wasted some time. [See Climbing plants, p. 1 n.]

Summary

Invites WDF to Down.

His stomach now so bad he cannot stay, even with close relations, for more than half an hour at a time.