Summary

News of Mrs Henslow’s death.

Studying Impatiens, which bears on CD’s problems. Though genus is endemic to India, with over 100 species, CD will be glad to know they do not run into one another.

Summary

Lyell has been strongly urging John Murray to publish CD’s book [Origin]. JDH feels Lyell overestimates the public interest in such works.

Gives examples of plants showing most marked varieties on the edge of their range.

Summary

The house at Barmouth.

His poor health.

Bentham’s interesting Linnean Society Address ["On geographical biology", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1869): lxv–c].

CD particularly wishes to know how botanists agreed with zoologists on distribution.

Still thinks isolation more important in preserving old forms than Bentham is inclined to believe.

Summary

Thanks for Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].

T. S. Cobbold’s book on the Entozoa [1864].

Remarks on development of the tapeworm.

Summary

Bad month of sickness. John Chapman’s ice bag on spine.

Does not quite agree with JDH about Lubbock’s plagiarism charges. Lyell’s memory must have failed him.

Summary

CD urges HWB to write on his travels;

asks for facts on domestic variations;

is pleased by HWB’s acceptance of the theory of sexual selection.

He still believes in migration from north to south during glacial age.

Hopes Bates will publish a paper on mimicry.

Summary

Returns JDH’s proofs. He is so involved in Origin he cannot judge force of JDH’s arguments. Some detailed comments.

Haldeman’s old paper [see 2470] clever, but does not have natural selection. Explaining adaptation has always seemed turning point of theory of natural selection.

Summary

Lyell’s Antiquity of man lacks originality.

Statements in Lyell provoke CD to determine exact publication date of Origin and JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].

CD now believes in repeated periods of global cooling and migration.

Summary

JDH has settled the Leschenaultia case, but it remains a difficulty to CD.

Goodenia, like bee orchid, seems a case of a structure with an evident function, which is not carried out. Is curvature of styles an incidental result of growth or a pollination adaptation?

Summary

At work on abstract.

Continues argument on effectiveness of dispersal. Has doubts about relationship of isolation to highness of Australian flora. Questions about survival of European plants introduced in Australia.

CD receives the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society.

Summary

Too ill to examine proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae [The botany of the Antarctic voyage, pt III].

Summary

Sends copy of Origin for comments.

Does not feel AG’s views of migration after the last glaciation explain distribution in U. S. as well as CD’s view of migration prior to glaciation.

Summary

CD wants JDH to make clear in introduction to Flora Tasmaniae that remarks on CD’s theory refer to his 1858 paper ["On the tendency of species to form varieties", Collected papers 2: 3–19].

Summary

Received JDH’s introduction to Flora Tasmaniae.

Criticism of C. V. Naudin’s descent theory.

Asks that Lyell be allowed to see letter.

Summary

CD favours occurrence of reversions, although lack of experiments forces one to vague opinions. Reversions oppose only the inheritance not the occurrence of variation. Discusses relation of reversion, direct influence of conditions, and selection.

Summary

Returning from Moor Park. CD will take up proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae.

Summary

Returns CD’s pamphlets.

Wishes CD would work out further what keeps certain species immutable for great periods.

Feels himself a convert, but cannot go all lengths with CD.

Feels some reviewers distort CD’s argument.

Summary

Has finished geographical distribution chapter and asks JDH to read it.

Is it just to say embryological characters are of high importance in plant classification?

Summary

CD agrees cultivated plants may begin to vary after some time and then may vary suddenly, but cautions JDH on lack of evidence. His explanation is that small variations are ignored until they accumulate.

Summary

Jamieson has revisited Glen Roy and confirmed his theory of glacier lakes.

A. G. More considers CD the most profound of reasoners.