Thanks for "rich and valuable" letter [missing].

Has read TR’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle ["Seedling fruits – plums", (1863): 27] – "a treasure to me".

Questions about seedling peaches that approach almonds.

Asks whether TR has ever observed varieties of plants growing close to other varieties for several generations without being affected by crossing.

Asa Gray will try to get HWB’s paper reviewed.

Also mentions that he (CD) wrote a short review of it for Natural History Review [Collected papers 2: 87–92].

Asks whether bees or Lepidoptera visit flowers of Melastomataceae.

Acquired characteristics.

Huxley’s lectures: good on induction, bad on sterility, obscure on geology.

Asa Gray on slavery.

Falconer’s partial conversion.

Alphonse de Candolle on Origin.

Asks for account of sales of Geology of "Beagle". Willing to consider offer for remaining stock in order to close account.

Thanks AdeC for his memoir ["Étude sur l’espèce", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 18 (1862): 59–110].

CD astonished at the amount of variability in the oaks.

CD differs from most contemporaries in thinking that the vast continental extensions of Forbes, Heer, and others are not only advanced without sufficient evidence but are opposed to much weighty evidence.

AdeC’s comment on CD’s work [Origin] is generous.

CD is satisfied at the length AdeC goes with him and is not surprised at his prudent reservations. He remembers how many years it took him to change his old beliefs. The great point is to give up immutability. So long as species are thought immutable there can be no progress in "epiontology" [see ML 1: 234 n.]. CD is sure to be proved wrong in many points but the subject will have "a grand future".

Particularly interested in TR’s information about peaches. Accepts offer of double-flowering peach-trees.

Will build a small hothouse for experiments.

Can TR distinguish generally, always, or never, a nectarine-tree from a peach-tree before it flowers or before it fruits? He wants to quote TR’s answer.

Comments on his own review of Bates’s butterfly paper [Collected papers 2: 87–92].

Thanks AG for information on Platanthera.

Has been wasting more time with Melastomataceae; can find no nectar in Monochaetum; is there any in Rhexia?

Hopes Lincoln’s "fiat against Slavery" will have some effect.

If jaw belongs to Archaeopteryx, it will show great peculiarity. A German author has advanced the case as argument for Origin.

Discusses hybrid strawberry–raspberry

and his research on Primula and Linum.

Suggests breeding experiments.

Doubtful about Donald Beaton’s statement about Pelargonium.

Mentions experiments on peloric flowers.

Urges JS to publish on orchid pollen-tubes.

Suggests comparing stigmatic tissue of sterile hybrids and fertile parent; he would expect hybrid plant’s cell contents not to be coagulated after 24 hours in spirits of wine.

Suggests JS coat orchid stigmas with plaster of Paris for his work on rostellar germination.

Asks for list of "bud-variation" cases; CD has devoted a chapter to the subject.

Inquiries about I. Anderson-Henry’s observational competence.

Thanks JvH for his address [to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury], his Geological Report [Topographical and geological exploration of the western districts of the Nelson province, New Zealand (1861)],

and for the "honourable" notice of Origin.

CD especially interested in JvH’s facts on the old glacial period.

Asks about fossil remains [of supposed living mammalia] which CD thinks may be like "the Solenhofen bird-creature" [Archaeopteryx].

Urges the recording of rate and manner of spreading of European weeds and plants and observation on which native plants "most fail".

Asks that a copy of Origin be sent to Thomas Rivers.

Curious about sale of Orchids. It is too stiff for the public. "If praise from Botanists would sell, it would go off well."

CD’s comments on JL’s paper [first part of "On the development of Chloëon dimidiatum", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 24 (1863): 61–78].

Impressed with TFJ’s Glen Roy paper.

TFJ has treated CD’s errors very gently.

Has received the two trees sent by TR. Is anxious to see the fruit of the double peach.

The Origin is being sent.

Asks about insect fertilisation of Melastomataceae.

Has WBT ever heard of a case of the regeneration of monstrous (extra) toe on fowls?

Inquires about a curious pigeon reported at the Philoperisteron [pigeon fanciers’ club].

Congratulations on marriage, which CD considers the best and only chance for happiness in this world.

Glad HWB is near completion of book.

Begs him to thank Wallace for Melastoma information; CD "cannot endure being beaten by a beggarly flower".

Asks FB’s help in identifying an article in The Field about the fins of fishes growing again after being cut off, and inquiring whether he has heard of the re-growth of organs in the mammalia or birds.