Disagrees with GB when he says he is not up to treating the whole subject [the present state of the species question]. He is especially equipped to handle the "great subject of affinities in relation to descent and independent creation".
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.
Natural selection implies that a form remains unaltered unless an alteration is to its benefit. This is not inconsistent with some forms remaining stable for long periods. Natural selection must at present be grounded entirely on general considerations. Of details we are still greatly ignorant.
GB’s address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix] pleased him as much as Lyell’s book [Antiquity of man] disappointed him on species question. GB has done a "real good turn to the right side".
Asks for names of plants mentioned in an article in Natural History Review ["South European Floras", n.s. 4 (1864): 369–84] so he can get seeds.
Also would like specimens of the two forms of Aegiphila.
Sends specimens of two species of Aegiphila [see Forms of flowers, p. 123]. Discusses similar forms in other plants.
Thanks GB for specimens [of Aegiphila] and his information.
Asks GB to consider whether it is necessary for the Linnean Society to be so strict about the number of books members may borrow.
Replies to CD’s two memoranda, GB explains: 1. That he never said thistles do not produce seeds, but rather that the infinite majority of new plants are propagated from buds
2. That book-borrowing rules of the Linnean Library are not so stringent as the Librarian makes out.
His memory deceived him about GB’s statement [on propagation of thistles].
Invites GB and wife to luncheon.
Is unable to fix a day for luncheon until later.
Has studied Variation with interest.
Cannot quite follow CD on reversion and Pangenesis,
but is amazed at CD’s observations and method.
Comments on varieties of asses, kidney beans, and artichokes.
Is not surprised that GB cannot digest Pangenesis, but it has been an immense relief to CD in tying together large classes of facts.
Sends names of men writing on crossing of plants. Criticises some French observations. Praises Hildebrand and Federico Delpino.
Sends pamphlets.
CD is experimenting on a large scale on difference in plants raised from self-fertilised and crossed seeds.
F. Hildebrand has produced a graft-hybrid which seems to lend important support to Pangenesis.
Discusses Hildebrand
and criticises Delpino.
Asks to borrow C. K. Sprengel’s Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur [1793].
Botanists have no explanation of the case of Viola odorata and other showy flowers being sterile while inconspicuous ones bear seed.
Sends Ernst Haeckel’s [Generelle] Morphologie [1866] and C. K. Sprengel’s book [Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur (1793)].
A. Gaudry and L. Rütimeyer have declared in favour of CD’s views.
Expresses thanks and pleasure at what GB has said about his book [Variation] in GB’s [Presidential] Address [to the Linnean Society, 1868, Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1868): lvii–c]. "What you say about Pangenesis quite satisfies me".
CD discussed "bud-variation" to show that it was an error to believe all variability is due to sexual generation.
Asks CD to sign enclosed certificate first, as he does not know T. H. Farrer personally. [On top part of first two pages of a letter to Hooker from H. C. Rothery about Farrer’s nomination for Linnean Society]
The Linnean Society Council wants CD to review two papers, with reference to their value for publication.
Sends a letter (and seeds) from Fritz Müller about a strange monstrous form of Begonia found wild in Brazil. Asks GB whether it is worth communicating to Linnean Society.