Reports on results of forcing and other attempts to produce variations in plants. Asks for some seeds.

Is correcting his Linnean Society paper ["On the action of sea-water", Collected papers 1: 264–71].

Antarctic plants most difficult to account for on any theory. Lyell’s iceberg transportal of seeds.

Are there more representative species of American origin in Tristan da Cunha than in Kerguelen land?

Tristan da Cunha flora.

Aquatic plants.

Density and diversity of plants in small plots in Kent, Keeling Islands, and Himalayas.

Quotes passage from [Frédéric?] Gerard on distribution of certain Lepidoptera.

Whether or not there should be movement of particles according to Tyndall’s theory of glacial action ["Observations on glaciers", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 2: 54–8, 441–3].

CD subscribes to H. C. Sorby’s view of gneiss [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].

Seed-salting.

Pigeons.

Significant differences in skeletons of domesticated rabbits.

Reports on the naturalised animal life of Ascension.

C. T. Beke has communicated to the Mauritius Natural History Society a letter he received from CD. VdeR attempts to answer questions on transport of seeds by the ocean.

Plants that are social in the U. S. but are not so in the Old World.

Distribution of U. S. species common to Europe.

Gives Theodor Engelmann’s opinion on the relative variability of indigenous and introduced plants and notes the effects of man’s settlement on the numbers and distribution of indigenous plants.

Sends review by Quatrefages [de Bréau] of Owen’s Parthenogenesis [1849].

J. D. Dana’s congratulations on JL’s marriage.

Sends extract from a correspondent’s letter reporting birds carried to Mauritius from Madagascar by winds.

Will send MS on one point of geographical distribution. It is "of infinite importance" that JDH see it, for CD has never felt such difficulty in deciding what to do.

Wants capsules of aquatic plants, to float in sea-water.

Note accompanying MS of part of chapter 11 ["Geographical distribution"] of Natural selection [1975].

Podostemaceae flowering under water.

Agrees with JDH that Cytisus report [presumably of a large change] not sound. CD pleased because, if true, species would change too quickly.

Responds to CD’s queries on Sierra Leone: fertility of European animals introduced to W. Africa, relationship of health and complexion of Europeans, etc.

CD coming to London.

Read JDH’s review [Hooker’s Kew J. Bot. 8 (1856): 54–64 et seq.] of Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique raisonnée [1855] long ago.

Sends JDH part of MS for chapter 3 of Natural selection ["Possibility of all organic beings crossing"] to be corrected and returned.

JDH’s report of Podostemon flowering cleistogamously under water in Bengal.

[Copious revision by JDH.]

CD sorry he had to leave the Hookers abruptly to catch his train.

Comments on JL’s paper on Daphnia, ["An account of methods of reproduction in Daphnia and of the structure of the ephippium", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 79–100].

Discusses arthropod structure and the nature of the corium.