Sends MS [of Origin] on geographical distribution. Wants JDH to correct facts and say what he most vehemently objects to.
Has received JDH’s note on plant embryology.
Sends MS [of Origin] on geographical distribution. Wants JDH to correct facts and say what he most vehemently objects to.
Has received JDH’s note on plant embryology.
Will finish last chapter (except recapitulation) tomorrow.
Pleased with JDH’s response to geographical distribution chapter;
CD disagrees with Lyell’s view that glacial epoch is connected with position of continents.
Hopes Murray will publish after seeing MS [of Origin].
Demurs at JDH’s saying that CD changes climate to account for migration of bugs, flies, etc. "We do nothing of the sort; for we rest on scored rocks, old moraines, arctic shells, and mammifers." Has given up the Lyellian doctrine as insufficient to explain all changes in climate; CD has no theory about the cause of the cold.
Thanks for letter of caution about Murray. He has offered to publish without seeing MS. CD thinks book will be popular to a certain extent. Lyell’s inducing Murray to publish Origin grates CD’s pride.
Has read first sheets of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae [introductory] essay [published separately as On the flora of Australia (1859)]. Criticises lack of evidence supporting views that best marked varieties occur at edges of range of species and that species remain under cultivation for many generations and suddenly begin to vary.
Murray has read first three chapters of Origin and abides by his offer to publish.
CD agrees cultivated plants may begin to vary after some time and then may vary suddenly, but cautions JDH on lack of evidence. His explanation is that small variations are ignored until they accumulate.
CD favours occurrence of reversions, although lack of experiments forces one to vague opinions. Reversions oppose only the inheritance not the occurrence of variation. Discusses relation of reversion, direct influence of conditions, and selection.
JDH’s comments on style of Origin MS leave CD confused.
CD advises on how to get Acacia to set seed.
JDH finds style of CD’s MS obscure.
CD wary of JDH’s starting point on variability: it is not inherent, it does not lead necessarily to divergence, and it must be distinguished from inheritance.
Asa Gray has misread CD’s views on pre-glacial migrations and botched the subject.
Too ill to examine proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae [The botany of the Antarctic voyage, pt III].
Returning from Moor Park. CD will take up proofs of JDH’s Flora Tasmaniae.
CD making extensive corrections on proofs of Origin. Worries that style is too dry.
Doubts about Joseph Prestwich’s discovery [of flint tools].
Returns JDH’s proofs. He is so involved in Origin he cannot judge force of JDH’s arguments. Some detailed comments.
Haldeman’s old paper [see 2470] clever, but does not have natural selection. Explaining adaptation has always seemed turning point of theory of natural selection.
CD wants JDH to make clear in introduction to Flora Tasmaniae that remarks on CD’s theory refer to his 1858 paper ["On the tendency of species to form varieties", Collected papers 2: 3–19].
All but last two chapters of Origin proofs corrected.
Praise for JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Very ill and sick of work.
Corrected last proof of Origin yesterday. Still has revises and index to do.
Will read more JDH proofs of Flora Tasmaniae.
Book finished some two weeks.
Feeling much better at Ilkley.
Lyell thinks favourably of book but "staggered" at lengths to which CD goes.
Which continental botanists should receive presentation copies?
Congratulates JDH on finishing his introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Lyell’s position on mutability appears more positive in his letters to JDH than in those to CD. Considers JDH a convert.
More detailed comments on JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae]. Remarks on struggle of vegetation are admirable.
JDH will receive Origin in about ten days.