Thanks JDH for Asa Gray’s interesting letter.

Would like JDH’s copy of Coral reefs. Needs it for corrections for a new edition. Cannot buy one.

Reports on a séance. "The Lord have mercy on us all if we have to believe in such rubbish."

Asks JDH to vote for his nephew, Henry Parker, for Athenaeum membership.

CD guessed Carruthers was stirred up by Owen. Disgraceful treatment of Bentham.

Work on Descent and Coral reefs stops his doing anything of real interest.

Asa Gray’s letter. CD has acknowledged the honour [honorary membership in the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.].

"What a demon on earth Owen is. I do hate him."

Thanks for information about Hedychium. Hopes wings of Sphinx will be found covered with pollen for that will be a fine bit of prophecy from the structure of a flower to special and new means of fertilisation.

Has been at Descent so hard he has done nothing, not even H. Spencer’s answer.

Has not yet read Croll ["Ocean currents", London Edinburgh & Dublin Philos. Mag. 47 (1874): 94–122, 168–90].

Has heard nothing about Carter and Eozoon. Eozoon, he infers, is done for.

Has read Belt [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)]: best of all natural history travel books.

Has written to Fritz Müller about leaf-carrying ants.

Hopes to resume work on Drosera.

Etty [Henrietta Litchfield] is helping with Coral reefs [2d ed.]; will JDH lend her his copy?

C. V. Riley’s case of Pronuba moth and the fertilisation of Yucca, is the most wonderful case of fertilisation ever published [Am. Nat. 7 (1873): 619–23].

Suggests experiments to try [with Nepenthes]. Asks JDH to test whether cabbage seeds and peas exposed to the ferment germinate.

Thinks Frank and he have worked out Pinguicula well and they long to attack Utricularia. Tried several plants with sticky glandular hairs; some few absorb ammonia, but the greater number do not. If JDH sends plant or seed of Lychnis CD will examine it to see whether it catches many flies. Asa Gray has written him much about Sarracenia, with a specimen showing the splendid dodge by which ground insects are enticed up and then drowned. Describes how it may be investigated, to see whether it absorbs decayed matter from flies, or ammonia thus generated.

It would be interesting to prove that some plants feed on decayed animal matter whilst others like Drosera can digest fresh animal matter. Suggests the method for observing this.

The Acacia must be Belt’s "Bulls’ horns".

The complexity of Utricularia has driven Frank and CD almost mad. Suspects it is necrophagous, i.e., it cannot digest, but absorbs decaying animal matter.

Foster is certainly in error. Every insect that Drosera catches causes aggregation.

"It is grand about Nepenthes."

JDH is welcome to notice in any way any of CD’s published or unpublished results with insectivorous plants. Gives an abstract of his observations on Drosera.

JDH should do as he likes with insectivorous plant materials.

He has always thought telling JDH what he has been doing was as good as publishing.

Cephalotus seems as horrid a puzzle as Utricularia.

Nepenthes will turn out a great job if the pitchers of different species act differently. JDH’s paper on Nepenthes [Rep. BAAS 44 (1874): 102–16] is too long for CD’s book. Well deserves a place in Philosophical Transactions.

It is splendid how Nepenthes is behaving. Drosera and Dionaea are insignificant by comparison.

Takes rather a malicious pleasure in JDH’s failure with Cephalotus as a match to his with Utricularia.

Thanks JDH for his "quite admirable" address [Rep. BAAS 44 (1874) pt 2: 102–16]. Suggests revisions.

CD thinks he is "now on right track about Utricularia" after wasting several weeks "in fruitless trials and observations".

Mrs Barber’s paper is very curious and ought to be published.

Lady Dorothy Nevill has no Dionaea.

CD anxious to talk with JDH about Utricularia.

Describes his observations on Utricularia montana.

Asks JDH to cut a bit of root from old Utricularia and bring it with him to Down.

Queries about species of Utricularia.

The Aldrovanda has arrived. Has examined the leaves. It is an aquatic Dionaea which has acquired some structures identical to those of Utricularia!

Thanks JDH for extract on Hedychium pollination; it shows CD’s prior interpretation was incorrect.