Indicates portions of Island life that will interest CD. Explanation of the geological climate is the foundation stone of the book.

Hooker’s approval of the theory of Australian and New Zealand floras.

Response to CD’s notes [on Island life]:

1. On relation of paucity of fossils to coldness of water;

2. Cessation of the glacial period;

3. Rate of deposit and geological time;

4. The importance of preoccupation (by plants) in relation to plants arriving later.

Charge of speculative explanations is just.

Defends plausibility of migration of plants from mountain to mountain.

Thanks for book [Movement in plants].

ARW’s view of migration of plants from mountain to mountain gains support from case described in Nature [23 (1880): 125–6] by J. G. Baker. Identical species of alpine plants found in African mountains and Madagascar.

Appreciation of CD’s efforts in recommending him for pension. Asks about proprieties of thanking Gladstone and the signers of the memorial.

Further information about the pension with particular thanks to CD for his role.

Enthusiasm for Henry George’s Progress and poverty. Considers it to rank with Adam Smith’s work. His own work on the land question [Land nationalisation (1882)].

Thanks for book [Earthworms]. Asks whether leaf-mould is not formed by decay as well as by the agency of worms.

Refers to CD’s letter of "May last". ARW’s views on order of succession of species are in accordance with CD’s.

Disappointed that his paper ["On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2d ser. 16 (1855): 184–96] elicited no discussion; now ARW is trying to prove it. Paper merely states the theory.

On black jaguars breeding inter se: ARW has never heard of a parti-coloured one.

Gives an extract from L. von Buch on the flora of the Canaries [Physikalische Beschreibung der Canarische Inseln (1825)].

Natural selection does not explain why animals of different groups in the same place often resemble each other.

No summary available.

Cannot accept invitation at present.

Is sending a wild honeycomb from Timor.

Acknowledges Orchids with its disclosures of "wonderful adaptations".

Warns that CD aids critics by overstating the difficulties.

Did Owen write the article in the Quarterly Review? [Review of Origin by Samuel Wilberforce, Q. Rev. 108 (1860): 225–64].

Muscular fibres of whale no larger than those of bee – evidence of a community of origin.

Problem of the abortive wings of ostrich in relation to conditions of their survival.

Would be pleased to have third edition of Origin.

Is unwell and dreads the winter.

Acknowledges 3d edition of Origin.

Praise of Herbert Spencer’s First Principles [1862].

Health.

Is sending information about Timor fossils to be forwarded to Hugh Falconer.

Encloses flowers of Melastoma from Singapore.

Acclimatisation of plants.

Striped horses in London.

Bees’ cells; has been promised information from the East.

Remarks on ARW’s review of Samuel Haughton’s paper on bees’ cells

and Origin.

Agassiz’s strength as geologist and weakness in natural history theory.

Work problems.

His butterfly collection.

Problems with book on Malay journey.

Recommends Herbert Spencer and his Social statics.

Spencer’s "masterly" nebular hypothesis.

Now recalls a Melastoma visited by some small Cetoniadae and bees (Xylocopa) in Malay Archipelago.