CD thinks HBD’s tables would be a considerable gain because "the importance of hereditary transmission can hardly be exaggerated from every point of view". Makes suggestions.

Asks him to send any remarkable cases of inheritance to him and, as well, any case of regrowth of amputated additional digit.

Disagrees with GB when he says he is not up to treating the whole subject [the present state of the species question]. He is especially equipped to handle the "great subject of affinities in relation to descent and independent creation".

Good of HF to tell him about Brazilian beast. So intermediate a form is "very glorious". Must assume it is very old.

Grieved by Falconer’s and Prestwich’s treatment of Lyell.

Reproductive anatomy of the common ash reminds CD of JDH’s Welwitschia because of its transitional forms.

Pleased JDH encourages Oliver to do orchids.

Thanks for LAR’s book [The land and freshwater mollusks indigenous to, or naturalised in, the British Isles (1863)].

Interested in ACR’s Presidential Address [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 19 (1863): xxix–lii] on the breaks in succession (of formations). Hopes ACR will provide a diagram of breaks, with the percentage of fossils that "pass upwards", i.e., continue to appear.

Horrified at Huxley’s geology.

Wishes ACR would discuss "creeps".

After finishing vol. 2 [of Naturalist on the river Amazons], CD still has only praise. Remarks that his family is also enjoying the book. He regrets having finished, since he so enjoyed the descriptions.