Describes how adhesive bladders enable the achenia of Pumilio argyrolepsis to attach themselves to the soil. James Drummond sent seeds to CD with a memorandum on the achenia.

Gives directions to Down. Would be happy to see SPW but regrets they "have no attractions".

Agrees about colonisation of Arctic region.

CD thought that his St Helena land shells had quite recently become embedded; his specimens are at the Geological Society.

Can SPW ask A. Günther for any references to Silurus escaping from the Danube?

Orders journal volume [Mémoires présentées par divers savans à l’Académie des Sciences 4] from librarian.

Responds to CD’s inquiries about rattlesnake.

Thanks WDF for an inkstand that keeps ink from getting muddy.

Asks if WDF can verify truth of a statement that white sows carry their young for a longer or shorter time (CD forgets which) than other colours. Presumes it is false, "but many odd peculiarities are correlated with colour".

CD’s opinion of minor critics and commentators on Origin.

H. C. Watson’s notion of genera converging is dismissed.

Thinks third edition of Origin should advertise "additions and corrections", for the additions are important. They will add 30 pages to the book; there will also be a short historical sketch. Asks for some copies for friends.

Also curious to know how Journal of researches has sold. The new issue seemed a rash venture to him.

Orders one pint of tincture of henbane.

Is glad AG will publish [pamphlet of his reviews of Origin]. Insists on bearing the costs. Encloses list of institutions and individuals to whom he would send copies.

Writes of Henrietta’s illness.

Physiological changes in Shetland ponies and seagulls resulting from change in diet.

Reports on the discovery of eyeless beetles in cellar [i.e., not caves]. How did they get there, and whence?

Identifies two dipterous species of parasites [chalcidites].

Was not able to attend to the aphids last year, but will make use of CD’s suggestions and "study as much as I can the inquiry as to species".

Quotes passage from letter from Asa Gray dealing with views of Francis Bowen on heredity and Agassiz "(foolish man)" on heredity and languages.

Sent CL the Calcutta Review [with Edward Blyth’s review of Origin, 35 (1860): 64–88].

Is obliged for WBT’s "curious case". Discusses the effects of castration on development.

Can there be any truth in account of rattlesnakes fascinating their prey? Structure of rattle complex.

Fears it will be impossible to show gradation among other snakes.

Has JW seen Robert McDonnell’s article on electrical organ in skate ["On an organ in the skate", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 57–60]?

Thanks for observations on Vespidae. Particularly values such cases of variation.

Changes in admission to Athenaeum.

Slowly working at his volume on Variation.

Experiments on insectivorous and "sensitive" plants.

Discusses the colouring of the young of various breeds of rabbit.

Observations on results of various poultry crosses and on a character which is linked to sex.

Henrietta’s continuing poor health. JDH’s suggestion to rub her with cod-liver oil.

Discusses the possible explanation of why fly-orchid plants in a correspondent’s garden had no pollen-masses removed while Orchis maculata had all of its pollen-masses removed. CD points out that different orchids are fertilised by different insects. The insects needed to fertilise the fly-orchid may not have inhabited the site of the correspondent’s garden.

Gives notice of returning books by a carrier and thanks for assistance.

Asks whether Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville’s Ostéographie (1839–64) includes rabbits or hares.