Summary

Thanks for account of his work. Cannot read Dutch, but son has translated it.

Thanks for album sent by PH’s countrymen.

Summary

Thanks for EK’s book [Werden und Vergehen (1876)].

Regrets he cannot write for EK’s journal, but his son, Francis, may do so.

Suggests EK as editor urge on readers [of Kosmos] the investigation of the causes of variability; why, for instance, do wild Pampas cattle change colour when domesticated? Thinks experiments and observations on recently domesticated animals and cultivated plants would throw light on the subject.

Summary

Had found out his error [use of "cleistogenous" for "cleistogamous" in Cross and self-fertilisation] some timeago.

Is now writing on cleistogamic flowers [for Forms of flowers (1877)], and, with it, will have worked up all his old materials on plants. JVC will then have a rest from his labours of translation.

Summary

Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s work [Philosophical discussions (1877)].

Gladstone visited recently, and they discussed the future role of the United States as a world power.

Summary

CD counters Thiselton-Dyer’s objection to protoplasmic filaments of Dipsacus protruding beyond cell-wall, as Frank’s paper claims, by citing white "blood cells passing through vessels".

Has received Moseley’s collection of photographs.

Summary

Asks EH to make a small correction in his translation [of Cross and self-fertilisation].

Summary

Murray’s will not announce CD’s new work [Forms of flowers] until informed to do so.

Summary

Congratulates CD on testimonials from the savants of Germany and the Netherlands [Nature 15 (1877): 356, 410–12] and generally on his contributions to biology.

Asks if and when CD’s "Variability of organic beings in a state of nature", as projected in 1868 [see Variation 1: 4] is to appear.

Summary

Warm thanks for CC’s letter. CD needed no word from CC to be convinced of his high opinion.

Summary

CD apologises for his burdensome request of Oliver.

Criticises JDH’s notice on Forsythia, which JDH said was dioecious. Forsythia sent to CD from Kew was heterostylous.

Summary

A curious error – too late to change: in Cross and self-fertilisation CD has "cleistogenous" for "cleistogamous" flowers throughout.

Summary

Oliver cannot, as CD has requested, hunt for trimorphic flowers in the Herbarium’s collection of Oxalis specimens. He would help Frank if he comes.

Summary

Thanks for Orchids [2d ed.].

Does not feel his abstract of Cross and self-fertilisation [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 13 (1877): 125–41] was thorough enough.

Has heard of their sad bereavement last autumn [death of Amy, wife of Francis Darwin].

Summary

Thanks CD for new [2d] edition of Orchids.

Mentions some observations on dimorphic plants.

Reports on a third species of Pontederia [see Forms of flowers, p. 185].

Describes some unusual grasses.

Reports rumours from southern Brazil concerning the existence of a gigantic subterranean animal.

Summary

Discusses the cleistogamous flowers of Oxalis. Thinks they may not be truly cleistogamous but merely arrested or imperfectly developed normal flowers.

Summary

Asks FD to mollify Daniel Oliver and assure him that CD asks "only for what I wd. give my life’s blood for".

Summary

Thanks GBE for his essay on the placenta [Sull’unità del tipo anatomico della placenta nei mammiferi e nell’umana specie (1877)].

Summary

Sends autograph as requested.

Summary

Enquiring about cleistogamic flowers of Oxalis.

Summary

Sends an informal title-page [for Orchids, 2d ed.].

Appreciates the condolences for Frank [on death of his wife, Amy].