Sends thanks for CD’s help in making him a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Dyer has sent some Erinem.
S. C. Malan, Rector of Broadwindsor, could translate Georgian letter from Tiflis.
Asks for CD to add his name to James Croll’s application to the Royal Society of London.
He will repeat his experiments on the cat’s sense of smell.
The intelligence of rats is shown by their gnawing through lead pipes to find water.
Reports on various observations and experiments: a duck–fowl hybrid with queer habits,
three cases of man–dog hybrids,
his interarching vine experiments,
and orange scale.
Asks CD whether it is worth sending money to prop up the Index.
Is delighted CD plans to call on him.
Wants to discuss botanical work.
Asks to borrow Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (1865) [and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (1869)].
Has not been neglecting Pangenesis for Medusae.
Outlines in simple form the statistical distribution of inherited characteristics in a theory of "organic units".
Notifies CD that information he [GGS] gave before on colours of peacock’s feathers was wrong [see 5891 et seq.] and refers CD to H. C. Sorby, who has worked on the subject.
Sends CD an address [missing] on Lucretius and St Paul.
Sends list of misprints in first edition of Insectivorous plants for the German collected works.
Thanks for reading paper. Accepts CD’s criticisms; discussion of some points.
"Sambaquis", or shell mounds accumulated by former inhabitants of the coast, contain shells of some animals that FM has never seen living.
Ants that live on imbauba trees (Cecropia) are attracted by small bodies at base of each petiole.
Sends his paper on an American pitcher-plant [Darlingtonia californica].
AG’s notices of Insectivorous plants [Nation 22 (1876): 12–14, 30–2]
and Climbing plants [2d ed., Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 11 (1876): 69–74].
Use of flower peduncles for support in Maurandia. Transition from branches to tendrils.
BJS has just moved.
Gives the information he has of their old shipmates.
Tells of his brother’s misfortunes.
Discusses fairy rings.
His brother Cecil is reading Coral reefs, and, as his business involves the Keeling Islands and Torres Straits, he offers to make any observations CD might want.
A believer in evolution seeks to convince CD that a spiritual creative force, rather than natural selection, explains its operation.