Asks GB to vote for "a distant connexion of mine" at Athenaeum, and to mention this to Hooker.

Wrote some weeks ago about Burmese fowl-skins; is willing to send them, carriage paid.

Asks WBC to plant some kidney beans [on Holy Island near Arran] and to see whether they are ever visited by bees. If no bees visit the island, it would be "curious" to observe what plants grow there.

Asks about Indian horses. Encloses questions.

Will return Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St Paul (Jowett 1855) and requests several books, of which the latest is Hugh Miller’s Cruise of the Betsey (Miller 1858).

On papilionaceous flowers and CD’s theory that there are no eternal hermaphrodites. Connects this theory to absence of small-flowered legumes in New Zealand and the absence of small bees as pollinators.

Went to the show and saw EWVH’s birds.

Thinks he will give up his pigeons at the end of the summer.

Asks to borrow W. C. Hewitson’s book [British oology, 2 vols. (1831–44)].

CD is searching for reliable information on slight variations in the degree of perfection of nests of the same species of birds.

CD has never doubted probability of Bering Strait land connection.

Family illness.

Has received Burmese fowls’ skins from Walter Elliot.

Mrs Henslow’s death stirs reminiscences of happier days.

Thanks WDF for information on blackbirds’ nests [see Natural selection, p. 505].

Problem of choosing from among the load of curious facts for chapter on "Instinct" [Natural selection, ch. 10; Origin, ch. 7] perplexes him.

Asks about behaviour of chicks in danger and whether crossed animals are wilder than either parent.

General success of survey makes CD very concerned about sources of error. Wants to meet JDH for an important talk about big genera. Arranges meeting.

Returns books by Candolle and Robert Brown.

Thanks GHKT for letter on plant acclimatisation and variation among alpine and lowland forms in Ceylon.

Six volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus confirm rule that small genera vary less than large. Labiatae an exception to rule.

Writes of domestic matters

and asks WED to observe cart-horses for traces of dark stripes on spine and cross-stripes on shoulder.

Thanks LA for presentation copy of Contributions [to the natural history of the United States of America, vol. 1, pt 1: Essay on classification, and vol. 1, pt 2: North American Testudinata (1857)]. Flattered; CD sees there is much of highest interest to him.

Asks whether botanists tend to record varieties more carefully in large genera or small genera.

Wants information on the ranges of varieties of a species compared to the range of the species.

Thanks for Hewitson [British oology].

Has found more variability in birds’ nests than he expected.

Interested in WDF’s note about turkey terrified by a frog [see Natural selection, p. 488 n.].