Discusses arrangements for American edition of Variation.

Observations on apparently inherited instinct in a dog.

Must prepare new edition of Origin.

Discusses structure of beehives. Mentions writings of Chauncey Wright on bees’ cells ["Remarks on the architecture of bees", Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 4 (1857–60): 432–3].

Discusses measurements of bees’ cells.

Suggests it would be easier and cheaper if he were given one or two pages in preface [to Journal of researches] for two or three important errors. Would like to take out one sentence if present preface is not stereotyped. Table of contents is shabby.

Thanks WHM for information about honeycombs. Discusses his own measurements of combs.

Thanks for information about the weight of water.

Describes experiments on Drosera.

Glacial action in the Andes.

Origin of Chilean sheep.

Varieties of S. American horses.

Facts and inferences relating to different varieties of sweetpeas.

Extracts from botanical literature dealing with Dionaea, intercrossing, and sensitivity. [Bot. Ztg. (1833): 96; Thomas Nuttall, Genera of N. American plants (1818)].

Habits of ducks when sleeping on water.

Gives an extract from L. von Buch on the flora of the Canaries [Physikalische Beschreibung der Canarische Inseln (1825)].

Natural selection does not explain why animals of different groups in the same place often resemble each other.

Regret that the Archbishop of Canterbury and other English Bishops have severely censured Essays and Reviews [1860]. Believe "such enquiries conducted in a spirit so earnest and reverential … must tend to elicit truth, and to foster a spirit of sound religion". [Signed by CD, numerous men of science, and others.]

Regrets he cannot answer SPW’s questions.

Discusses antiquity of subaerial volcanoes.

Disagrees "entirely & absolutely" with L. von Buch’s "elevation-crater-theory".

Agassiz denounces Origin as "atheistical";

AG is currently reviewing it [in Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 29 (1860): 153–84].

Jeffries Wyman praises it, though not a convert.

CD asks how soon JM will go to press with Journal [of researches]; thinks he had better look it over to see if progress of science has made any correction necessary.

P.S. Asa Gray has written that Origin has caused great excitement in U. S. Agassiz has denounced it.

Will keep THH’s secret [of authorship of Times review of Origin]. It has made deep impression.

J. D. Dana’s illness.

Daily News accuses him of plagiarising Vestiges.

Returning Thomas George Bonney’s certificate, which it was a pleasure to sign.

Delighted that JH is interested in his book [Origin?]

Thanks CD for the Origin. WW is not yet a convert but there is so much "of thought and of fact" in what CD has written that "it is not to be contradicted without careful selection of the ground and manner of the dissent".

High praise and detailed comments on JDH’s introductory essay to Flora Tasmaniae, which CD has now finished reading.

Disagrees on power of transoceanic migration. Advocates glacial transport of plants.

CD’s response to reviews of Origin in Saturday Review [8 (1859): 775–6] and John Lindley’s in Gardeners’ Chronicle [but see 2651].

Notes by HCW on the Origin dealing especially with divergence and convergence. Believes there is some natural tendency to converge into groups in opposition to divergence generated by natural selection.