Will take Natural History Review, but cannot write for it.

Has mass of notes on irritability in orchids,

but he ought to work on Variation.

Drosera was an interlude while away from home. Expectations for effect of carbonate of ammonia on Dionaea. The important phenomenon in Drosera is the segregation of the red fluid within the leaf, not action of carbonate of ammonia on the red fluid.

Compliments DO on his wealth of information.

Henrietta’s relapse.

Thanks for extract on Drosera.

Admires DO’s correlation of spiny tree species and dry hot climate. CD suggests that spines, like strange aroma of desert plants, protect against browsing where there are few plants.

Fragrance and unisexuality.

Dimorphism in Viola tricolor.

Thinks he has worked out simple mechanism of movement in Drosera. Believes he is correct that gum has no effect.

Thanks for Trécul paper ["Organisation des glandes pédicellées de la feuille du Drosera rotundifolia", C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. 40: 1355–8; Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 3d ser. 3: 303–11].

Chloroform paralyses plants in 30 seconds.

Quotes note by Julius Milde on Drosera rotundifolia from Botanische Zeitung (1852): 540.

DO’s candidacy for Professorship of Botany [at University College, London].

Henrietta’s health is better.

Paper in Botanische Zeitung [T. Nitschke, "Über die Reizbarkeit der Blätter von Drosera rotundifolia", 18: 229–34, 237–45, 245–50] missed leading point that plants close longer over animal substances. Carbonate of ammonia works on Lemna and Euphorbia roots.

Congratulations on Professorship.

Homologies between Drosera and Dionaea. Carbonate of ammonia on roots. Wants W. H. Fitch to make drawings of Dionaea. Will copy minute structure of hairs from Trécul [see 2965].

One thirty-thousandth of a grain of human hair inflects a single Drosera hair. Astonished by his results so he is not publishing until next summer. [Not published until 1875, Insectivorous plants. See ch. 2 for observations on inflection.]

Wants to study effects of acids on live Dionaea. Oliver should do their anatomy. Corresponding with chemical physiologists about carbonate of ammonia on roots.

The plant CD’s father called "flycatcher" was not Asclepias.

Dr Hooker has given him CD’s memorandum on the fly-catcher.

Copies out extract from Curtis’ Botanical Magazine [On Apocynum androsæmifolium, 8 (1794): tab.]: 280 and gives a further reference in Erasmus Darwin’s The loves of plants [1789]. Suggests that they look at Apocynum.

Requests date of [C. S.] Rafinesque[-Schmaltz], New flora of North America, pt 1 [1836].

List of references on orchid structure and fertilisation.

Praise for DO’s paper on Hamamelidaceae ["On Sycopis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 83–9, read 15 Mar 1860]. Everything points to its being a "bankrupt" family.

Hydropathy at Malvern may take him from Drosera. Requests Dionaea and Cypripedium.

Primula sibirica seems to be the only non-dimorphic species. Has made over one hundred Primula crosses.

Regrets Henslow’s illness.

Thanks W. H. Fitch for drawing for the Primula paper. Death of experimental plants delays publication.

Requests that exotic species of Vinca, which never set seed at Kew, be fertilised by pressing a fine bristle between anthers as a moth would its proboscis.

Asks that Primula farinosa be sent.

Has put Drosera off while amusing himself with Primula and orchids.

Dionaea is prettily adapted to weight detection.

Asks DO to look for nectar in Stanhopea saccata labellum. CD’s theory predicts nectar should be present, but afraid there is none.

Refers CD to a paper which he ought to know: Ch. Fermond, "Faits pour servir à l’histoire générale de la fécondation chez les végétaux", Recueil des travaux de la Société d’émulation pour les sciences pharmaceutiques 3 (1859).

Requests that DO examine enclosed microscope slides of Acropera ovules, to confirm CD’s opinion that females are non-functional.

Can DO comment on disagreement between Robert Brown and John Lindley over the number of Acropera carpels?

O. Heer’s Atlantis theory vs CD’s hypothesis of a migration north during warm periods.