Congratulates JDH on his becoming a C.B.

Hard at work on sexual selection – weary of everlasting males and females, cocks and hens.

Has read J. H. Stirling vs Huxley on protoplasm [As regards protoplasm (1869)]

and E. B. Tylor on survival of old thoughts in modern civilisation.

Bentham’s Linnean Society [Presidential] Address [see 6793] is worth its weight in gold in making converts. C. J. F. Bunbury is impressed by it.

Likes JDH’s review of K. F. Schimper’s work [Paléontologie végétale, in Nature 1 (1869): 48].

Comments on A. W. Bennett’s letter [Nature 1 (1869): 58] on fertilisation of winter-flowering plants. CD used net, not a bell-glass to cover Lamium.

Refers to F. Delpino’s observations on fertilisation of grasses; CD is glad to say these observations are compatible with "the very general law that distinct individual plants must be occasionally crossed".