Summary

Asks AG to forward [unspecified] enclosure to Chauncey Wright.

Summary

Wants seeds of Nesaea verticillata for crossing experiments to see whether seedlings from "illegitimate unions" are sterile like true hybrids.

Summary

Has received but not yet read Insectivorous plants.

Summary

AG’s notices of Insectivorous plants [Nation 22 (1876): 12–14, 30–2]

and Climbing plants [2d ed., Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 11 (1876): 69–74].

Use of flower peduncles for support in Maurandia. Transition from branches to tendrils.

Summary

Encloses a correction [for Climbing plants, 2d ed.]. Asa Gray made a mistake in name of species of Passiflora.

Summary

Thanks OH for his book [see 9876]; agrees that the sudden appearance of many dicotyledons in the Upper Chalk is a perplexing phenomenon for the evolutionist.

Summary

Has secured rights to Variation from Judd & Co.; had to pay $350 [dollars or pounds!?] for old plates and promise 50% discount on 150 copies of the new edition. Hopes Murray’s charge for plates of new edition will not exceed cost of doing the work in the U. S. Judd lost out considerably from small sale of his edition.

Summary

Thanks CD for Descent

and for his praise of Cosmic philosophy [1874].

Summary

Sends a copy of Climbing plants [2d ed.]. Price cannot be higher than 6s.

Variation [2d ed.] price will be 18s, if CD approves. Future reprints will not be costly, since both have been stereotyped.

Summary

Acknowledges copy of Insectivorous plants; has observed Drosera filiformis leaves closing around prey.

Summary

No action on assistance yet, but has had a private note from Disraeli asking whether Thiselton-Dyer is his recommendation.

Summary

The insect-capturing Araujia has been forwarded from Portugal.

He discovers Apocynum is not in the same family, and he has misquoted [John Leonard Knapp’s Journal of a naturalist (1829)]; Apocynum captures by stamens, not stigma.

Sends seeds of Portuguese Drosera.

Summary

Suggests WTT-D read account of Bignonia capreolata in forthcoming Climbing plants.

Plans experiments [on Melastomataceae]. Describes similar experiment performed on Monochaetum. Interested in meaning of differently coloured stamens.

Summary

Is not inclined to restrain himself from expressing his opinion of Mivart. Huxley’s article in Academy.

Summary

Speculates on the function of eyebrows and of hair and the furrows of the forehead. Considers many features and faculties to serve, or to have served, more than one function, either simultaneously or successively. Determining the one function through which natural selection has acted in developing it is unrealistic and not worth while.

Summary

Thanks for Thomas Belt’s Naturalist in Nicaragua [1874], which confirms some of his observations,

and for Insectivorous plants, which he praises.

Suggests that a book integrating knowledge of plant–animal interactions be written by a Darwinist.

Defines biology as the science of external interactions.

German reception is far more positive than Italian.