Thanks JvH for his address [to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury], his Geological Report [Topographical and geological exploration of the western districts of the Nelson province, New Zealand (1861)],
and for the "honourable" notice of Origin.
CD especially interested in JvH’s facts on the old glacial period.
Asks about fossil remains [of supposed living mammalia] which CD thinks may be like "the Solenhofen bird-creature" [Archaeopteryx].
Urges the recording of rate and manner of spreading of European weeds and plants and observation on which native plants "most fail".