Replies to CD’s queries on sexual habits and differences in fish and lizards.
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Replies to CD’s queries on sexual habits and differences in fish and lizards.
Thanks CD for parasitic worms [see 6858] specimens. Supports "fact of succession".
Reports on events at Exeter [BAAS] meeting. G. G. Stokes made a first-rate President.
Huxley "poured boiling oil" over James McCann in answer to his "conceited dogmatic sermon".
F. A. W. Miquel is coming to stay.
Sends excerpt on polygamous breeding habits of Asiatic elephants by Lieut. Johnstone [Proc. Asiat. Soc. Bengal (1868): 128]. [See Descent 1: 268.]
Sends a lower molar of fossil horse from Quito. Curious as to its species, especially in view of Owen’s findings in Mexico.
Wishes to borrow a paper by R. G. Haliburton on superstitions connected with sneezing [see 5635].
His observations on young of Theridion lineatum reveal no characteristics distinguishing one from another;
quotes N. Westring on stridulation in Theridion serratipes [see Descent 1: 339].
F. C. Donders has been to lunch – a good "Darwinian"!
JDH’s speech of resignation [as BAAS President] at Exeter was charming [Rep. BAAS (1869)]. JDH should have been an ambassador.
Has received Indian census.
Is unusually well.
Gives some observations and opinions on the appearance and behaviour of mandrills.
Encloses last instalment of data on colour of women’s hair and conjugal selection. Fears results are inconclusive.
Proportion of sexes in rats.
Since March has been living in Heidelberg, where his wife is studying mathematics and physics.
The Russian translation of Variation has been printed in his absence; he will bring a copy to Down if he receives one from Russia.
On stridulation of Coleoptera, Trox sabulosus, Mutilla. [See Descent 1: 380.]
Thanks for CD’s ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56].
Although Thomas Meehan’s paper ["Variations in Epigaea repens", Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. (1868): 153–6] shows great variability in this genus, JTM sees a need to qualify the generalisation that there is as much variation in the wild as under domestication. He knows no evidence for a constant proportion between variability in the wild and under cultivation.
Observations on correlation between leaf size and exposure to sun and shade.
Has evidence for two varieties of Ophrys apifera in England, which live in mutually exclusive colonies.
Will come to Down on 25 Sept.
Thanks CD for supplementaries ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56] which he will quote in the British flora [The student’s flora of the British Islands (1870)].
F. A. W. Miquel could not come.
Asks JDH to consult colleagues learned in physiology for answer to query: when a large piece of bark is removed from a tree, does the bark ever regrow in isolated points [separate] from the growing margin of the surrounding bark? Query bears on Pangenesis and on power of repair in plants.
JM is about to start a new monthly literary review [the Academy]. Would like to publish in first number a short notice of the new work upon which CD is engaged [Descent].
Asks CD’s opinion of a paper he has written on papilionaceous flowers.
Leaflet variation at the tip of Lathyrus stems.
Robert Fenn exhibited potatoes at the Horticultural Society which showed general failure of graft-hybrids and provided an example of reversion to a wild Peruvian tuber resulting from cross-fertilisation.