Summary

Origin of Antarctic brash ice.

Further on case of Lycopodium: does JDH know any genera of plants whose species are variable in one continent but not in another? Discussion on variations between floras as regards species richness, and factors affecting geographical distribution. On species, CD expects "that I shall be able to show even to sound naturalists that there are two sides to the question of the immutability of species; – that facts can be viewed and grouped under the notion of allied species having descended from common stocks". Mentions books and papers for and against species mutability. CD believes past absurd ideas arose from no one’s having approached subject on side of variation under domestication.

Would like to see Clarke’s paper

and would welcome visit from JDH.

Summary

Queries on ratios of species to genera on southern islands. CD’s observations on distribution of Galapagos organisms, and on S. American fossils, and facts he has gathered since, lead him to conclusion that species are not immutable; "it is like confessing a murder".

Summary

Would like to see JDH’s testimonials.

Disappointed with Kosmos.

Has visited Dean of Manchester, who is very heterodox on species.

Summary

A Tasmanian Cyttaria is same species as CD’s Fuegian fungus. Did the species originate on the beeches of Fuegia or of Tasmania?

JDH gives interpretation of Vestiges.

John McCulloch, J. F. Schouw, and Lamarck on the species question.

Summary

Was glad to read JDH’s article on glaciers of Yorkshire ["Moraines of the Tees Valley", Reader 6 (1865): 70].

Reader article [6 (1865): 61–2] about English and foreign men of science is unjust.

Lubbock is now lost to science.

B. Verlot’s pamphlet on variations of flowers [Sur la production et la fixation des variétés dans les plantes d’ornement (1865)] is very good.

Summary

Thanks for H. C. Watson’s interesting letter. Disagrees with him on intermediate varieties.

CD has read latest numbers of JDH’s The botany of the Antarctic voyage [pt I, Flora Antarctica (1844–7)]; notes several sentences against "us Transmutationists".

Summary

Regrets he cannot visit JDH.

Has been talking with Lyell about coal, which he finds utterly perplexing.

Is delighted with the generalisations in latest numbers of Flora Antarctica.

Summary

Is relieved his book [Himalayan journals] has been well received and glad he has successfully completed it.

Summary

Asks to borrow several Floras. Must redo calculations as John Lubbock has shown him an important error.

Summary

His reasons for rejecting Atlantis hypothesis connecting Madeira and Canary Islands.

Summary

Flora of New Zealand.

Reconsidering variability of insular species.

Becoming convinced of the probability that the southern flora is a fragmentary one – all that remains of a great southern continent.

Summary

Responds to CD’s criticisms. JDH is sometimes confused as to what he has borrowed from CD.

Summary

Sorry to hear about condition of JDH’s grandfather.

Sends proofs of Galapagos chapter of Journal of researches.

Grieves to hear labels are displaced on his plants.

May he annotate [F. Gérard’s] L’espèce [(1844), extracted from Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle, ed. C. D. d’Orbigny (1839–49)]?

Summary

Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.

Summary

CD’s seed paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 1: 255–8];

CD attacks Forbes’s "Atlantis".

Considers solutions to floating problem. Decides to test Azores seeds.

Photographs and drawings of CD.

Plant movement experiments with Hedysarum gyrans.

Summary

Indignant over Owen’s conduct as described in Hugh Falconer’s article on elephants ["On the American fossil elephant of the regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1863): 43–114].

Summary

Goes on the assumption that each species has one origin, is immutable, and migrates.

Disagrees with Gaudichaud[-Beaupré] that volcanic island species are polymorphous.

Some mundane genera vary, others do not (Senecio vs Gnaphalium).

John Lindley’s doctrine of longevity of trees is amazing.

Edward Forbes’s health is better.

Summary

Answers CD’s queries arising from Flora Antarctica.

Would like CD to come to town and go over Galapagos plants with him.

Summary

Oliver says H. E. Baillon found stamens on female flowers of Coelebogyne, but JDH and many botanists have never found any stamens.

Lyell wants to propose JDH for Copley Medal.

Summary

On individuality.

Huxley’s review exquisite, but too severe on Vestiges; sorry for ridicule of Agassiz’s embryonic fishes.

Stonesfield mammals.

J. O. Westwood deserves Royal Society Medal.

Will begin species work in a few days.