Has examined Leschenaultia and concludes the external viscid surfaces have nothing to do with the stigmatic surface. Agrees with CD’s style and nectary conclusions; accounts for their form and position in irregular flowers by describing floral development.

[Enclosed are some queries by CD with answers by JDH. Gives information on seed setting by Mucuna

and an opinion on the abruptness of N. and S. limits of plant ranges.]

Gives CD references to papers on eyes of lower animals.

Facts and inferences relating to different varieties of sweetpeas.

Reminds JSH to send "sketch & account of the wasp’s comb in transitional state from horizontal to vertical, & the country whence procured".

Asks for information on spread of Anacharis [Elodea].

Sedgwick [in criticism of Origin] was not very fair, but Murray says it is splendid for selling copies to "the unfortunate students".

Has studied CD’s Jamaican hive-bees and finds them identical to Apis mellifica.

Discusses the structure of wasps’ and bees’ nests

and the occurrence of winged and apterous individuals within some insect genera and species.

Comments enthusiastically on WBC’s review ["The theory of development in nature", Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404].

Sketch and description of a [wasp’s] nest from Cuba. [Notes by CD on wasps’ nests and comb-building habits of hive-bees.]

Asks for information about Anacharis.

Has received copies of translation of Origin. Thanks HGB for undertaking it.

Comments on review by F. J. Pictet ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce, par Charles Darwin: analyse et critique",Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55].

Sends a letter concerning priority [of Patrick Matthew] for JDH to read and post.

Angered at Owen’s review.

Huxley’s Royal Institution lecture ends well.

Discusses crosses in sweetpeas and the difference between monstrosities and slight variations. Discusses peloric flowers.

Thanks for correction about furze.

CD elected correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

What a base dog Owen is for praising his own work in reviewing Origin [anonymously].

J. H. Balfour is narrow-minded.

CD cannot understand pollination of Goodenia.

CD’s observations on curved styles read well. JDH seeks morphological rationale of curvature in the position of nectaries.

He has avoided lecturing to Royal Family’s children at Buckingham Palace.

CD intrigued by the pollination mechanism of Leschenaultia formosa.

CD interested in Thomas Bell’s rumour that Owen avows his review.

Curved styles and their relation to pollination.

Sends list of plants with asymmetry in nectar-secreting surfaces and pistils bent in that direction. Shows insect agency so important that structure has changed. Asks for contrary or confirming examples and that request be passed on to Daniel Oliver.

JDH has settled the Leschenaultia case, but it remains a difficulty to CD.

Goodenia, like bee orchid, seems a case of a structure with an evident function, which is not carried out. Is curvature of styles an incidental result of growth or a pollination adaptation?