Summary

Heartily glad about Willy.

Has never had Zizania.

Still has Leersia. He cannot make the beast produce.

What slow coaches the Ministers are about the Ayrton affair.

Summary

Heartily glad about the news of the Ayrton affair development.

Huxley looks very unwell from too much miscellaneous work; CD wishes he could be made a Director General for transference of British Museum and for other scientific work, as JDH suggests.

Summary

Is sorry JDH cannot come to Down.

Hopes the House of Lords "pitch into the accursed fellow" [Ayrton].

Summary

Dionaea plants have arrived. Just ready to observe some points in their structure.

Has Murray sent Expression book?

JDH’s particulars about Owen, Ayrton and Co. ("a nice firm") amused CD much.

Summary

Condolences on death of JDH’s mother.

Summary

Is much vexed about Drosera.

Land-level changes and volcanic activity.

Summary

Is sending Drosera back

and "the curious Kerguelen book".

"Drosera has almost been the death of me."

Hopes the accursed man [Ayrton] does not give JDH any more trouble.

Summary

Pros and cons of answering Owen’s letter.

On Artizans’ Dwellings, he approves the object but it is lost money as an investment.

Summary

Asks for address of a Mrs Barber somewhere in South Africa.

JDH’s letter in Nature [6 (1872): 516–17] is excellent, and wonderfully quiet.

Severely criticises Owen’s conduct.

Summary

JDH Should do as he sees fit about proposing him [John Scott] [for fellowship of the Linnean Society].

Summary

Has signed the memorial by men of science with real pleasure. Fears it may be too severe. He told Lady Derby about JDH’s troubles. She said she would tell Lord Derby what he had said.

Summary

Acknowledges receipt of cheque.

Summary

CD hopes the Times abstract of minutes of Lords of the Treasury will make JDH’s position more comfortable.

The "wretched Lords" make CD indignant, but "nothing equals Owen’s conduct. – I used to be ashamed of hating him so much, but now I will carefully cherish my hatred & contempt to the last day of my life."

Summary

Acknowledges JS’s excellent letter of 25 September. May CD assume that the gigantic worm-casts were nearly circular when measured before the rain?

That a medical man should always have the place of superintendent seems a piece of jobbery.

Mentions [George] King.

JS’s thin paper renders some words on other side almost illegible.

Summary

Is now at work on Drosera and asks to borrow D. capensis and other species.

Summary

Asks for London address of George King [Superintendent of Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta], so he can ask about worm-castings sent by King from S. India. Has just received a splendid letter from John Scott on worms.

Asks where he can buy Dionaea.

Summary

Tells Hooker to do as he pleases about proposing John Scott.

Summary

Overjoyed at the way the newspapers have taken up JDH’s case. The memorial has done great good this way, whatever the wretched Government does. It is enough to make one a Tory. JDH has done a service to all men of science by showing governments that they cannot be trampled on.

Summary

If the Memorial concerning Joseph Dalton Hooker’s dispute with Acton Smee Ayrton was sent to Down, there will be a delay in its return. He has discussed the matter with Mary Catherine Stanley (Lady Derby).

Summary

Encourages the government to keep the herbarium and library of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.