Asks for information about peacocks, especially Pavo nigripennis. Suggests a crossing experiment.

Thanks for Orchids.

Thanks for Orchids.

Has captured a bee with pollinia adhering to its head. Will send it to CD if he likes.

Yellow anthers of Heterocentron produce on the same plant thrice as many seeds as the crimson anthers. Crimson anther seeds produce dwarf plants, others rise high up. Monochaetum ensiferum facts are still more strange. Wants to investigate the case, and asks for a plant of the Melastomataceae just before flowering.

Has JDH a Rhododendron boothii from Bhutan with pistil bent the wrong way?

Thanks for Orchids.

"The big book [Variation] will no doubt go on again now."

JL is writing on Somme implements ["Evidence of antiquity of man", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 244–69].

Sends CD a quotation from Plato which anticipates the Origin.

Has been enjoying CD’s paper on dimorphism in the Journal of the Linnean Society ["Two forms of Primula", Collected papers 2: 45–63]. He has found similar structures [see Forms of flowers, pp. 116, 122].

Thanks for Orchids.

Thanks CD for his book [Orchids].

Thanks for the book [Orchids].

Found thousands of Ophrys aranifera plants.

Thanks CD for his book [Orchids]. CD has opened a new field for observation and a new unexpected track to explore phenomena that had before appeared "irreconcilable with ordinary opinion and method shown in the organic world".

Thanks WDF for interesting letter about turkeys. Would be grateful for information on fertility of the hybrids.

Thanks for Orchids.

Comments on presentation copy of Orchids. Has CD studied the orchid Sobralia?

Cannot get material for hollyhock experiment.

Sends his notes on Primula sinensis.

He is experimenting on Ranunculus.

Leschenaultia seems very odd. Will try with pollen left on for 48 hours. Illustrates diversity of structures for same purpose.

Bentham’s and Oliver’s good opinion of Orchids is reassuring.

Anxious to experiment on Melastomataceae; thinks it will give important results.

Wants Leschenaultia formosa to try whether viscid outside surface can be fertilised.

Has received first sheets of Orchids and is very impressed. "What a skill & genius you have for these researches."

Details of U. S. orchids.

Asks AGM to experiment on Epipactis palustris.

Thanks for revisions in 2d ed. of Origin. Suggests correction regarding species numbers in the Tertiary.

Comments on pages of Orchids and problems of German translation.

Believes CD’s theory not yet proven, but that it will finally lead to truth.

Thanks for Orchids.

Comments on presentation copy of Orchids: bee Ophrys self-fertilisation; origin of nectar; odour of orchids. Book gives strong cases for special creationists.

Miocene glacial period a remarkable discovery; if it is true, enlargement of Tertiary period necessary.

Received German monograph on Chilean Carabi that does not answer where isolated species came from.

HWB finds genital modifications of Chrysomela strong support for the theory.

Thanks for copy of Orchids.