Summary

Glad to hear Wallace is contender for Gold Medal. Has highest esteem for his extraordinary talents.

Thanks for H. Barkly’s letter from Mauritius.

Glad to see HB takes same view as CD about bones of deer [see 5395].

Objections to continental extension theory.

Progress [on Variation] very slow.

Summary

Discusses arthropod structure and the nature of the corium.

Summary

Tabulation of varieties goes on; very important as it shows the branching of forms. Mentions his principle of divergence.

Summary

Can no longer make out story of NW. American plants; consulting Asa Gray.

Questionable validity of seed-salting experiments.

Aristolochia and Viscum seem to shed pollen before flower opens.

Ray Society should only do translations.

Thomas Thomson in India has rediscovered Aldrovanda, a rare relative of Drosera.

Summary

Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".

Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.

Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.

Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.

Summary

CD relieved by JDH’s positive response to his MS.

CD continues observations on means of transport.

JDH’s Raoul Island paper [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 22 (1857): 133–41], showing continuity of vegetation with New Zealand, best evidence yet of continental extension.

Summary

African fowls from Sierra Leone are pugnacious and amorous.

Summary

Continued debate on formation of species as a result of retreat from glaciers.

JDH suggests internal powers of species modification, which he knows CD abhors.

Summary

Is grateful for SB’s note and assistance. Will call upon him in London in a fortnight.

Summary

Now has 89 pigeons. The laughing pigeons are safe at Down. Can WBT spare a pair of Mr Gulliver’s runts?

Summary

Thanks MJB for information which he is including in his article for the Linnean Society.

Refers to the peas "which produce the black or intensely purple pods". [See 1834 and 1836.]

Summary

Offers TCE dog’s skin and skull received from W. F. Daniell in West Africa.

Mentions his experiments involving hawk pellets in seed distribution.

Reminds TCE about pig crosses and incisors.

Summary

Thanks for information about variability in shells.

Comments on Harvey’s Seaside book [1849].

"I am growing as bad as the worst about species and hardly have a vestige of belief in the permanence of species left in me".

Summary

Believes in the "perfect indefiniteness & frequently the vast length of the interval" between consecutive geological formations. Thus has little respect for arguments against CD based on the absence of transitional forms in the geological record. States that species found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are really varieties of greatly differing ages. CD’s theory accounts for the progressive inprovement, multiplication and increase in complexity that can be seen, but which may often be only relative.

Summary

Has received some poultry from various parts of the world.

CD is glad that WBT is describing the birds that he acquires.

Summary

Thanks ACR for papers.

Glad present situation of our continents has been confirmed.

Wishes ACR would prove his view of origin of Red Sandstones, which many dispute.

Summary

Lists pigeons and poultry he is forwarding to WBT.

Wants details of WBT’s Poultry book [1856–7]

and is anxious to purchase his long-winged runt.

Thanks him for help and information on fowl crosses.

Summary

Corrects CD’s statement [Origin, 3d ed.] that Madeira does not possess one peculiar bird. There is one, out of the 99.

Summary

CD asks whether New Zealand tribes have an idea of beauty in women which is "like ours"; WBDM answers, "Yes".

Summary

CD urges HWB to write on his travels;

asks for facts on domestic variations;

is pleased by HWB’s acceptance of the theory of sexual selection.

He still believes in migration from north to south during glacial age.

Hopes Bates will publish a paper on mimicry.