Summary

Thanks JDH for box of melastomes

and a very valuable reference from Daniel Oliver.

Is crossing Monochaetum which he thinks is dimorphic.

Is "sometimes half tempted to give up species & stick to experiments".

Pollen of Bletia hyacinthina is quite unlike other Bletia species but exactly the same as Epipactis.

Summary

Reports on a bird, offspring of a male mule between a canary and greenfinch, and a hen canary.

Family news.

Summary

Box of Melastomataceae has arrived.

Talked with [Duke of] Argyll about Origin. He is between stools: Owen and Lyell.

Summary

Floral structure of Melastoma. Asks AG to observe position of pistils in lately-opened flowers of different plants.

Summary

Pleased at CD’s opinion of his Arctic plants paper. CD has caught great blunder.

Lack of Arctic–Asiatic species in mountains of tropical Asia does not trouble him. Species seem to indicate some "current of migration" from Europe and W. Asia southeastward to Ceylon – an awful staggerer to bridge migrations.

Summary

Asks GB’s help to clear up discrepancies between his and John Lindley’s observations on pollination of Melastomataceae.

Summary

Thanks for information on domestic animals of Indians.

Glad Murray thinks well of MS of The naturalist on the river Amazons.

CD working on proofs of Orchids.

Summary

Thanks for seeds.

Summary

Asks for the address of C. W. Crocker.

Summary

Discusses WED’s growing interest in botany; would be grateful for certain observations.

Is much concerned about Horace’s illness.

Has sent Orchids MS to printers

and will work a little at dimorphism.

Summary

Suggests a change in the postscript [referred to in 3423].

Summary

Obliged for MTM’s ["Vegetable morphology", Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 29 (1862): 202–18].

Summary

Cites descriptions of melastomads in C. V. Naudin, Annales des Sciences Naturelles 3d ser., vols. 12–18.

Summary

Sends dried specimens of Melastomataceae.

Summary

Has heard of mules of canary and other finches breeding occasionally, but it is rare, and there is hardly one authenticated case of two such mules breeding together.

Sixteen of the household at Down are sick with influenza.

Summary

Discusses politics in the U. S. and relations between Britain and America.

Summary

Writes that [Murray’s] terms are very favourable; has never heard of such terms offered for a first work. HWB can depend on fact that Murray is pleased with it [The naturalist on the river Amazons].

Summary

Admires JDH’s paper on Arctic plants ["Distribution of Arctic plants", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 251–348]. Such papers compel people to reflect on modification of species;

JDH will be driven to a cooled globe.

Serious erratum in paper.

New and original evidence in case of Greenland. Its flora requires accidental means of transport by ice and currents.

Summary

Would like to hear ACR’s new views on origin of mountain lakes, but cannot stand the hot, late meetings [at Geological Society].

Summary

Agrees with CD’s estimate of the man [unidentified]. Hopes CD will use his influence with Lubbock to try to prevent the Council’s placing him at the head of the Zoological Society.