ARW thanks CR for Ping. Grandiflora just received. Asks CR to stay the night on the way to Dorchester, or if not, to make arrangements to meet between [Parkstone] and Dorchester.

ARW leaves at midday on Friday for Switzerland. CR could come tomorrow (Thursday) evening and stay the night. ARW enquires about sleeping carriages, etc., from Bale [sic] to Brussels; is glad CR found something new in Ireland. Thanks for ?Pinguicula which arrived in excellent condition.

ARW will be pleased to see CR and his sister when they come to Parkstone. ARW & Mr Mitten had a good time on the whole in Switzerland. Mr Mitten brought home plants which have filled over 100 pots. ARW was delighted with the signs of glaciation and has material for another anti-?Bonneyite paper.

ARW is proposing to go to Corfe with his daughter and a friend and asks CR to join them. ARW wishes to ask something about Poole Harbour "as to which the Poole people are in a state of frantic terror!".

ARW has written nothing on the burial, as has found nothing of special interest. Asks CR to keep the specimens and give them with the bones to the Dorchester Museum. Arranges to meet the following Saturday. Saw CR's interesting note relating to the ?Rooks and the acorns.

ARW mentions CR's letter of about a week or two ago about carbonic-acid gas in glacier water, but ARW is writing his article and may not need ?information? He mentions the son of a friend, on a geology course, but in poor health; could he be with Ordinance Surveyors in the field? He is very keen on geology.

ARW informs CR that his friends are pleased with the prospects opened up by his second letter. The friends' name is Coomára Swamy; the young man's mother is a sister of Mr Beeby the botanist, who married a Cingalese [sic] barrister and member of the Ceylon legislature, came here on government business and was knighted. Further description of the family follows. ARW hopes the young man will be well enough to work in the field.

ARW agrees with CR's report and request for the grant to be restored. The phrase about the snake is very vague. ARW sent a copy of the paper on the Gorge of Aar to Dorchester (?CR at Dorchester). ARW had three weeks in Davos and Adelboden. Ridley has sent a large box of orchids.

ARW will be going for a stroll in the forest with Mr Mitten who is staying with them; they will call in on CR on the way back.

ARW thanks C. R. for the new book on the British Flora. The maple seeds have not come up. ARW has a lot of orchids brought up by young Coomara Swamy and a large lot from the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, and a blue water lily from S Africa. Will is still in America cycling from the Rockies to California.

Because the fields and heath ?behind the house have been sold for building, they are thinking of finding a new home and are searching for places. ARW is going to see the Old Manor House at Aston Tirrold.

Thanks for congratulations. Glad to hear he is coming to this part of the world again.

ARW has been reading Mrs Reid's paper in the ?Linnean Society Journal about disintegrating peat. ARW has some brought from Somersetshire and Ireland. Asks for reference in recent book to a summary of present knowledge of Palaeontology, like the "Table of British Fossils" at the end of Lyell's Students Elements.