Will do his best to provide preface for Weismann’s Studien [see Collected papers 2: 280–1].

Invites RM to luncheon.

Regrets he cannot compare his work with Weismann’s in his preface as he feels “an author is never a fit judge of his own work”. [Appended note explains that RM wished CD’s work to be fully acknowledged, which was frequently not the case in continental writings.]

Is glad book progresses; answers translation query.

Francis Darwin does not have time to lecture.

Sends the Fritz Müller article from Kosmos.

Wishes to subscribe to RM’s translation of Weismann.

Has seen Scudder’s article.

A. R. Wallace’s article ["Animals and their native countries", Nineteenth Century 5 (1879): 247–59] is excellent.

Shares RM’s misgivings about Fritz Müller’s mutually protecting mimics. Would expect bird’s response to distasteful caterpillars to be instinctive. Believes J. J. Weir or Thomas Belt may have investigated the point.

Would like to subscribe to English edition of Weismann.

References to Fritz Müller’s papers relevant to Weismann’s Studien [in Kosmos (Aug, Sept, and Oct 1877)].

Will proof-read his preface to Weismann’s Studien.

Requests name of the publishers of RM’s translation of Weismann’s Studien.

AD’s case is a "curious one"; it seems impossible to explain as accidental coincidence.

[Letter sent in error to Raphael Meldola and apparently never forwarded to AD.]

Apologises for the trouble he has caused RM. Encloses letter [13280] which has been returned to CD [by August Dupré, to whom CD had sent it in error].

CD happy to lend Weismann’s pamphlet to RM.

Agrees to propose RM for the Royal Society.

RM’s application to the Royal Society.

Thanks HAW for columbine and asparagus seeds and for counting pods for him. CD is astonished at the number of pods. Needs more seeds for one of his experiments.

Has he met Huxley yet? He is a very clever man.

Tierra del Fuego and the barren coasts of Patagonia are "singularly unfavourable to the insect world". In the tropics, however, CD captured minute Coleoptera by the hundreds – which should result in his bringing home many undescribed species.

Would like to borrow the bees that, as reported in Gardeners’ Chronicle, were sent to JOW with pollen-masses of orchids sticking to them. CD has never seen a bee visit an orchid. He believes he could identify the genus and perhaps species of the orchids the pollen comes from.

His health is too bad to attend the meeting [of British Association for the Advancement of Science].

Thanks JOW for the bees. The pollen-masses that were attached to one of them have unaccountably been lost.

Does not know of a paper by Charles Morren on orchids and insects, and would be glad to have the reference [see 3267, and Orchids, p. 270 n.].

Has spent so much money recently he is unwilling to subscribe for the purchase of T. V. Wollaston’s collection for the [Oxford] Museum.