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.

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.

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".

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.

Has read Origin and considers it one of the most valuable contributions to present-day natural history. Believes, however, that there are difficulties in the extensive generalisation that all taxonomic groups are related by descent. Does not understand how Genesis is to be read unless at least the human species was created independently of other animals. Cannot bring himself to the idea that man’s reasoning and moral sense could have been obtained from "irrational progenitors": the "Divine Image" is the unsurmountable distinction between man and brutes. [See 2644.]

Sends a copy of his Ventriculidae [of the Chalk (1848)]. This group, he feels, is well represented by CD’s plate of graduating species [Origin, ch. 4].

Answers to queries on expression with respect to Fuegians.

American edition of Origin. AG’s assessment of the book’s weak and strong points. Suggests Jeffries Wyman would be a useful source of facts and hints for CD.

Presents statement of expenses and anticipated profit of the new edition of 3000 copies [of Origin].

On the Origin. Before expressing his disagreements, CJFB praises CD’s labour, patience, fairness, and other qualities which make the work "one of the most important that has ever appeared in Natural History". [See 2690.]

It is not true that all the fossil cave bears are of the same species.

Lists land birds of Galapagos and discusses their distribution on mainland of S. America.

Informs CD that Sylvicola aureola may be a distinct species but is a close ally of S. aestiva of N. and S. America and perhaps only a "climatic variety".

Discusses phases of climate.

Describes fossil mammals discovered by Auguste Bravard in South America.

Has had argument with Bishop of Oxford [Samuel Wilberforce] about CD’s book [Origin].

Discusses review in Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Guesses that T. V. Wollaston is the author.

Discusses evidence of shells on Madeira.

Comments on paper by Wallace ["On the zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 4 (1860): 172–84].

Questions how natural selection can explain why some cells remain simple and others are modified into highly complex structures.

Reports on the spread in Ceylon of a recently introduced plant.

Believes Origin makes science "young, clear, elevated" but does not have the facts to prove that cumulated slight modifications could ever produce different families from common ancestors. [See 2709.]

Arrangements for the American edition of Origin.