Asks whether his former pupil, J. J. Moulinié, might translate Variation into French for Reinwald. CV would provide a preface. Encloses letter from Moulinié to Reinwald.

Supposes that infants’ eyes bulge and become engorged with blood during fits of sneezing or screaming, but doubts Charles Bell’s experiment of opening and observing eyes turn from pale to red [Anatomy and philosophy of expression (1844)].

Discusses the action of the eye when looking at distant objects.

Thanks for information on Galloway cattle. [See 5614.]

Interested in WBD’s work on descent of the rhinoceros; is pleased to learn that he does not consider species to be immutable.

Sends CD cheque for £250, two-thirds of the profits on the sale of 700 copies of Origin, 4th ed.

Hopes he has found a suitable indexer for Variation.

Will not be inclined to challenge Pangenesis.

Admits CD’s victory over JDH’s continental hypothesis (but will not give up Greenland).

Relation of variation to circumstances is shown by discovery of endemic St Helena umbellifer having same palm-like habit as an endemic Madeiran species.

Has completed Boott’s Carices [Illustrations of the genus Carex, pt 4 (1867)],

is printing W. H. Harvey’s work [Genera of South African plants, 2d ed. (1868)],

and is revising English edition of Alphonse de Candolle’s Laws of botanical nomenclature [trans. H. A. Weddell (1868)].

Arrangements at Kew. Gardener [John Smith] is very ill; Oliver reigns supreme in the Herbarium.

JvH forwards J. Stack’s replies to CD’s queries about expression [see Expression, p. 20].

Sends photos of skeletons of six species of Dinornis he is assembling for the Museum.

Oliver overlooked CD’s request about rutaceous flowers. Of precisely which points about the ovules does CD want illustrations?

Sends prospectus of forthcoming work by his brother [Henry Trimen] and W. T. Thiselton-Dyer [Flora of Middlesex (1869)]. Hopes CD will subscribe.

Sends photo of four Fuegians, including Jemmy Button’s son.

Reports incident of two wild stallions on the Falklands acting together in an attempt to take a troop of mares from an introduced English horse [see Descent 2: 241].

Encloses information on sex ratios in thoroughbred horses.

Wants to know how the colour of the eye of the peacock’s tail is produced, whether it depends upon colouring matter in the feathers or reflection, and whether any varying structural change will account for the series of colours surrounding it.

On numerical proportions of sexes in insects; coloration. Dimorphism in dragonflies (Agrion) in which usual coloration is reversed in sexes [see Descent 1: 362–4].

Wallace seems to ride his hobby too hard.

Responds to CD’s queries on polygamy in birds and orang.

Discusses sexual selection and secondary characters; colours and sexual preference.

Expresses his admiration for Pangenesis; it is superior to Herbert Spencer’s theory.

ARW differs somewhat with CD’s chapter on causes of variability [ch. 22 in Variation]. Thinks several of CD’s arguments are unsound.

Briefly discusses how natural selection might aid in producing sterility between allied species.

Could not believe Owen to be so demoniacal as to write the Athenæum review [of Variation].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [see 5918] is weak. CD’s ideas on causes of variation may be as hazy as the reviewer’s.

Huxley’s clever remark on Pangenesis. JDH’s view of Pangenesis as fundamental to development doctrines, but nothing is gained by formulation in terms of germs or gemmules.

Tries to answer question on last page of CD’s letter anent sexuality.

On polygamous birds and the pairing of birds. Late singing of males. [see Descent 2: 107.]

A reply to CD’s inquiry in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 2: 135]. The proportion of females to males in lambs of highland black-faced sheep.

Sends paper on conditions that favour predominance of plants.

Encloses table showing proportion of sexes in Rutland.

Aggressive behaviour of a bullfinch toward new arrival in JJW’s aviary.

Sexual differences in goldfinches: size of beaks.

Sexual selection in Lepidoptera.

Thinks Dr Alex Wallace’s observations on Bombyx not conclusive in proving that no preference is shown by females.

Sexual preference in insects;

structures for seizing females;

coloration.

Doubts whether CD can make much of a case from insects in support of sexual selection.

On the proportion of sexes in moths; Lepidoptera females command higher prices; quotes Staudinger’s catalogue [see Descent 1: 311–12].

Ticking of Anobium tessellatum [see Descent 1: 385].