"Law" [see 2092] correlating variability and abnormal development not confirmed by JDH for plants.
CD studies struggle for existence in his weed garden.
Scotch fir observed at Moor Park.
Royal Society medals.
Correlation of variability and abnormal development is G. R. Waterhouse’s law. Relation of this law to polymorphism.
Colouring and marks of ancestral horse deduced from facts observed in pigeons.
Seedling leaves of gorse look like clover leaves. This is like young lions being striped. Thus, laws of animal embryology apply to plants.
Embryology of plants of low systematic order. Comparative development begins only with first post-cotyledonary leaves.
Curt letter to JDH from George Henslow.
George Henslow’s curtness to JDH: "an attack of religion".
Embryonic leaves. Adaptive functions and taxonomic significance of cotyledons.
Asa Gray. Separation of sexes in U. S. trees.
Does JDH’s Wahlenbergia confirm CD’s law? Variations of one species assume the character of a distinct but allied species or genus.
Seed-salting: old ones float and germinate.
Owen’s "grand paper" [? J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 2 (1858): 1–37].
Asks to borrow several Floras. Must redo calculations as John Lubbock has shown him an important error.
Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.
Tabulation of varieties goes on; very important as it shows the branching of forms. Mentions his principle of divergence.
Some negative results in variety tabulation survey.
Galls on wild carrot.
Representative species may complicate tabulation of varieties.
Questions for Mr Anderson about horse colouring in Norway.
Has been writing an "audacious little discussion" to show that "organic beings are not perfect, only perfect enough to struggle with their competitors".
C. F. Ledebour [Flora rossica (1842–53)] particularly useful for variety tabulation. Results generally favourable.
Additions to Down House.
Last two chapters of MS took six months to write.
Returns some of the systematics books borrowed from JDH. Will now take on A. P. and Alphonse de Candolle [Prodromus].
Arrangements for a visit.
Return of books.
JDH coming to Down.
Rule that species vary most in larger genera seems universal.
Response to Gardeners’ Chronicle note on "Bees and kidney beans" [Collected papers 1: 275–7].
Mrs J. S. Henslow’s illness.
News of Mrs Henslow’s death.
Studying Impatiens, which bears on CD’s problems. Though genus is endemic to India, with over 100 species, CD will be glad to know they do not run into one another.
Inquiries on effect of dry heat on temperate plants for glacial chapter.
Finds CD’s results [of his survey of well-marked varieties from A. P. and Alphonse de Candolle’s Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis (1824–73)] "very curious and suggestive". Thinks the Labiatae will present an obstacle to him as it is a very large and distinct order with well-defined species and genera. Would like to see him tackle more volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus, as his case can only be established by evidence from mundane plants. CD should beware of generalising from local species variability. A comparison of C. C. Babington’s and G. Bentham’s [British] Floras [Babington Manual of British botany (1843, 4th ed., 1856); Bentham Handbook of British flora (1858)] would be invaluable. Suggests CD write to Ferdinand Müller and Charles Moore in Australia. Moisture favouring extension of species is important for CD’s view.
Survey of species with well-marked varieties: JDH’s Labiatae case a "great blow", but result is very generally consistent.
