Has been unable to find a book [unspecified] wanted by CD.
Has been unable to find a book [unspecified] wanted by CD.
Plans to meet CD in town.
Sends his paper ["Über Dichogamie nach C. C. Sprengel und Ch. Darwin", Bot. Ztg. (1863): 1–7, 9–16].
Delighted by curious case of inheritance in the weeping ash [cited in missing letter from TR] "which produced weeping seedlings and itself lost the weeping peculiarity!" Wishes he could get authentic information on the weeping elm.
What TR says of seedlings conquering each other well illustrates struggle for existence and natural selection.
Sends copy of his second paper on mutability of race forms ["On the mutability of species", Proceedings of the Northern Entomological Society, 22 December 1862, pp.4–26].
On tactics of his opponents.
He and Bates have divided up Carabidae and Vanessa for studying relationship of forms.
Points out some errata in the Origin.
Discusses the factors producing the shape of the cells of the honeycomb.
Reports case of two varieties of musk-rat that behave very differently but are, according to Waterhouse, the same.
On holiday; cannot answer CD’s questions.
Agreement to cancel the bond of D. T. Ansted, dated 19 April 1855. Prof. Ansted is arranging to pay CD what he can.
Asa Gray on democracy of plants.
Requests plants for new hothouse. Transferring plants to Down in winter.
It is not carpal or tarsal bones that are increased [in six-fingered men] but generally only the digits and metacarpals.
Pectoral fins of fish and sharks.
Asks THH to check P. M. Roget’s statement that there is a rudiment of a sixth digit in frogs.
[P.S. missing from original.]
Further discusses RT’s observations on Cape [of Good Hope] orchids and asks whether it would be possible for him to send some specimens to Kew.
British attitude towards America: not hate as Asa Gray thinks, but contempt.
Thanks HBD for his lectures On the germs and vestiges of disease [1861].
Thinks his reasoning that the V. M. F. ("force exhibited in the operations of life") is not a "given quantity" is satisfactory.
How far the conditions of life affect the forms of organic life puzzles CD more than any other part of his subject. Thinks he may have underrated its importance in Origin.
Asks for source of the quotation on regeneration in HBD’s work.
Tells JS Acropera capsule should be left to grow.
JS was correct on "bud-variation" in fern frond.
Does not believe Primula structure necessarily related to dioecism, but the difference in fertility of the two forms forced him to admit the possibility.
Thanks for letter and pamphlet.
His approbation of Origin is extremely gratifying, especially since Origin produced no effect whatever in France.
Sends belated thanks for the useful facts which he plans to quote. [See 3963.]
A note reminding THH to examine the rudiment of the 6th toe on the hind foot of a Batrachian.
Criticises Dana’s classification of man and his use of fore-limbs as a basis for systematic classification.
Discusses his reading and understanding of Origin.
Replies to CD’s letter: dimorphism common in Ceylon Rubiaceae. [See Forms of flowers, p. 286.]