Has finished corrections for 2d edition of Descent – "as hard work as I have ever had in my life". Estimates it is 40 pages longer than 1st edition.

Subscribes to a reprint of Pieter Boddaert’s Table des planches enluminéez d’histoire naturelle [check ‘éez’!?] [1874].

Many thanks for Boddaert [see 9389].

Comments on J. T. Moggridge’s article on the fertilisation of Fumaria capreolata [Nature 9 (1874): 423].

C. V. Riley’s case of Pronuba moth and the fertilisation of Yucca, is the most wonderful case of fertilisation ever published [Am. Nat. 7 (1873): 619–23].

Discusses illustrations for 2d edition of Descent.

"My nephew [Henry Parker] got into the Athenaeum with splendid success."

Delighted to hear about Coronilla. Urges publication ["Fertilisation of papilionaceous flowers– Coronilla", Nature 10 (1874): 169–70].

Is glad to have Descent cheaper and sold more largely, but would be sorry to see it printed like the Origin. "The closeness of the lines is the great fault." Fears book might be very thick. "I hear scores of people complaining of the heavy and thick books which you publish."

Thanks EM for essay ["Sopra un rara anomalia dell’osso malare", Annu. Soc. Nat. Modena 7 (1873): 1–50]. CD agrees as far as he understands. Cannot see how new modifications could arise by atavism. "The more I study nature, the more I feel convinced that species generally change by extremely slight modifications."

Discusses 2d edition of Descent. CD is inclined to a cheap edition and asks JM to consider a one-volume edition in double-column format.

Finding that the leaves of Drosera digest all the phosphate of lime out of bones and then remain clasped over the bones for a long time, CD wants to determine whether it is the phosphate of lime or the animal matter in the bones that keeps them clasped. He asks EF to send 2 or 3 grams of pure phosphate of lime for his testing. [See 9411.] Will experiment in the summer using EF’s suggestion that leaves might serve to test weak sewage. Results of Sanderson’s experiments with acids of great use.

Thanks an unknown correspondent for the 4th edition of his 'remarkable work'.

Asks correspondent to obtain odd numbers of Flora.

WW’s information accords with other accounts lately received. CD had formed an erroneous opinion on the subject.

Thanks for the seeds and plants that he requested.

Has written to J. Murray to have account of the Zoological Station inserted in the Murray guidebook.

The circular about the Station has been printed; some have already signed.

Received R. Kossman’s paper on Anelasma ["Untersuchungen über die durch Parasitismus hervorgerufenen Umbildungen in der Familie der Pedunculata", Verh. Phys.-med. Ges. Würz. N. F. 5 (1874): 129–57]. The case is the most interesting ever recorded of gradation, i.e., from an animal with a stomach to one with roots like a plant.

Delighted he will examine the complemental males of Scalpellum.

CD’s son Francis is to be married, so CD is seeking advice as to how much he should arrange as a marriage-settlement.

Thanks for the pure phosphate of lime.

Discusses LR’s communication concerning supernumerary mammae.

CD has observed hundreds of primrose flowers cut off their stalks, and conjectures that this was done by birds to obtain the nectar. Asks readers of Nature in England and abroad whether primroses are subject to such destruction in their localities.