Thanks for LW’s work [Studien über die Stammesgeschichte der Ammoniten (1880)].

Encloses check [cheque!?] for £50. James Caird will guarantee £75 and T. H. Farrer £25. Above gentlemen think JT should get report on his experiments from independent agriculturists.

P.S. to letter posted that morning. James Caird cannot pledge £75. Erasmus Darwin and Hensleigh Wedgwood will subscribe. May write letter to the Times. Asks for report on experiments.

Suggests Torbitt make a report on his progress so far.

Describes subscription for Torbitt [to continue potato experiments]. Would dislike writing to any paper, but Hensleigh [Wedgwood] and Erasmus [Darwin] advise CD to write to the Times.

Writes of the weather,

his reading of Huxley’s Crayfish [1880],

and domestic matters.

Encloses note and cheque from James Caird [for Torbitt].

Agrees that CD should write to the Times [about Torbitt’s potato experiments].

Thanks THF for his contribution; now has £170 to permit Torbitt to carry on his experiments. Describes the scale of the experiments and his belief in their value.

Thanks for copy of TLB’s Pharmacology [1880].

Sends funds for potato experiments. Asks for information on progress.

Queries how much land has been used to cultivate potato varieties, and how many seedlings have been raised in any one year.

Encloses statement of U. S. sales of CD’s works to 1 Feb 1880 and sends a cheque for balance due to CD.

Sends seeds of Megarrhiza and gives details of species.

Encloses letter from James Caird, who has entire confidence in CD’s appropriation of the money [collected for Torbitt’s experiments].

Hopes to finish his report tomorrow; last year’s crosses were failures.

Asks about possible erratum in JT’s account of experiments.

Sends pheasant tail coverts, which he believes are unusual in pattern, resembling those of a peacock.

Thanks for sending article on inheritance.

Sends details of Netter 1879 (Abraham Netter. 1879. De l’intuition dans les découvertes et inventions. Strasbourg: Treuttel & Wurtz.)