Summary

Petition Cambridge University that candidates for an Honour degree may be relieved from the obligation of passing an examination in Greek.

Summary

Abstract growing to inordinate length.

Writing in support of S. Passell as assistant at Linnean Society.

Summary

Forwards a letter from John Horner of Market Drayton, Shropshire, concerning £2000 he considers due to him from CD under the terms of the will of Sarah Bayley.

Summary

Reminds WBDM of his promise of information about the quartz boulders and an iceberg with fragment of rock seen in southern ocean.

Sends other questions [on separate sheet (missing)] which WBDM will think ridiculous, but all bear on plants and animals under domestication.

Summary

Thanks GGS for calculation [to determine the chances of the same peculiarity recurring in a family, see Variation 2: 5]

Summary

Thanks for rabbit.

Are there dun-coloured ponies in Shetlands? Are they striped?

Summary

Thanks for "rich and valuable" letter [missing].

Has read TR’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle ["Seedling fruits – plums", (1863): 27] – "a treasure to me".

Questions about seedling peaches that approach almonds.

Asks whether TR has ever observed varieties of plants growing close to other varieties for several generations without being affected by crossing.

Summary

Thanks WDF for information on blackbirds’ nests [see Natural selection, p. 505].

Problem of choosing from among the load of curious facts for chapter on "Instinct" [Natural selection, ch. 10; Origin, ch. 7] perplexes him.

Asks about behaviour of chicks in danger and whether crossed animals are wilder than either parent.

Summary

Is attempting to get skins of poultry from all quarters of the world. Wants to inspect poultry collections.

Summary

Would like to borrow WBT’s collection of fowls’ skulls.

Asks for WBT’s opinion of G. Ferguson, the author of a poultry book [Ferguson’s illustrated book of domestic poultry].

Summary

Asks JSH to identify an umbellifer.

Describes his efforts to compare number of seeds of wild and cultivated plants.

Asks that more wild celery be collected and seeds counted. Seeks to verify whether "most typical form produces most seed" and whether cultivation lessens fertility.

Summary

Congratulations on birth of THH’s daughter [Jessie].

On aboriginal dun colour of horses.

Examples of inaccuracies and perpetuation of errors [on hybrids] by "compilers, of which I am one".

Summary

Much interested in MTM’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On the relation between the abnormal and normal formations in plants", Notes Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1860): 223–7].

Asks for information about crossing of varieties of peas. Describes his own experimental results: "the offspring out of the same pod, instead of being intermediate, was very nearly like the two pure parents; yet in one, there was a trace of the cross & the next generation showed still more plainly their mongrel origins".

Summary

Is collecting facts for Variation; would be grateful for skins of local [Cape of Good Hope] breeds of pigeons, ducks, and poultry.

Summary

Answers D. Beaton’s criticism of Gärtner’s work, defending his results in crossing experiments and vindicating the memory of "one of the most laborious lovers of truth who ever lived".