Summary

Condolences on W. J. Hooker’s death [12 Aug 1865].

His own health is bad.

Summary

Asks JDH why so many plants are protected by a thin layer of waxy matter or with fine hairs.

Wrote to John Smith for a plant of Oxalis sensitiva, but it has not acted well.

Rejoices over Ayrton’s retirement. Hopes W. P. Adam, his successor, is a good sort of man.

Summary

Comments on Hermann Müller’s article on the structure of Gunnera flowers.

Summary

A son [George Howard Darwin] was born on Wednesday.

Sends queries on Galapagos flora.

Discusses JDH’s comments on [Journal of researches].

CD feels that with his views on descent "really Nat. Hist. becomes a sublimely grand result-giving subject".

"How differently people view the same subject, for I look at insular Floras … as leading to an opposite view to yours."

Summary

Strelitzia has arrived

but no books or bottles from G. H. K. Thwaites.

Hopes his own judgment about Origin is as good as Hooker’s about his own papers.

Strelitzia’s neat mechanism for exposing pollen.

Summary

JDH cites W. H. Harvey’s observations on Fucus and David Don’s on Juncus as examples of variations that are independent of climate. There are many such cases. Gives his working scheme for categorising variation.

Summary

A German scholar says JDH first applied natural selection to replacement of races of men, the ruder races of Polynesians yielding to civilised Europeans. CD cannot remember reading this.

Warns JDH to take care Welwitschia does not turn into a case of barnacles and consume years instead of months.

In what months do flowers appear in Acropera loddigesia and A. luteola? CD is alarmed by John Scott’s observations on them, which differ from his own. "I am very uneasy."

Summary

First part of "Galapagos flora" ["Plants of the Galapagos Archipelago", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 20 (1851): 163–233] finished but not printed.

Details of distribution of Galapagos flora. Peculiarity of island floras.

Leaves for Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Summary

Thinks JDH would be wise not to touch on Pangenesis; it has very few friends. Bentham is doubtful, Carus against, and Alphonse de Candolle likes it least in the book. CD still convinced it will be hereafter looked on as "best hypothesis of generation inheritance & development". If JDH means to cut up Pangenesis he has no word to say in opposition.

Summary

Falconer’s death haunts him. Personal annihilation not so horrifying to him as sun cooling some day and human race ending.

His health has been wretched.

Masters has written his agreement with CD’s "Climbing plants".

Summary

Lyell’s position on mutability.

Fertilisation of trees by bees.

Summary

Has written to Henry Holland in strongest terms. Will be surprised and disappointed if he does not accede to JDH’s request.

Summary

C. V. Riley’s case of Pronuba moth and the fertilisation of Yucca, is the most wonderful case of fertilisation ever published [Am. Nat. 7 (1873): 619–23].

Summary

Sends dried specimens of Melastomataceae.

Summary

Encloses letter from Ehrenberg [758] about Infusoria.

Intends to visit Kew.

Summary

Asks JDH to inquire of gardeners at Kew what they think about injury to plants from watering during sunshine. Wishes to experiment. He is already convinced that drops of water do not act as burning lenses.

Summary

The date-palm seed case is important for Pangenesis.

Reports experiments on pollination of Ipomoea.

"Insular floras": A. Murray’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle is poor.

John Scott’s work on acclimatisation of plants.

The anomaly of the Azores flora on the migration theory.

Summary

Thinks Royal Society’s failure to honour W. J. Hooker may be due to small number of botanists on Council.

Interest in H. J. Carter’s papers in Annals and Magazine of Natural History on lower organisms.

On Wallace; anthropology.

H. H. Travers’ paper on Chatham Islands [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9 (1865): 135–44].

W. C. Wells’s paper of 1813 ["Essay on dew", Two Essays (1818)] anticipates discovery of natural selection.

Summary

JDH’s "shock" that CD was awarded the Copley Medal.

Oliver, Thomson and JDH independently concur mature tendrils of Dicentra are foliar, though JDH remembers they were axial in the spring. Expects he and CD were fooled, but will have to look again next spring.

Praises CD’s Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].

JDH completing F. Boott’s work on Carex [Illustrations of the genus Carex].

JDH now does suspect Mrs Boott is illegitimate daughter of Dr Erasmus Darwin [see 4389].

Summary

JDH details the subscription fund’s finances.

Has finished lecture for Royal Society on N. American plant distribution.