Orders a copy of September number of Silliman’s Journal. A friend has recommended an article in it [A. Gray and D. Treadwell, "Discussion between two readers of Darwin’s treatise on the origin of species", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 30 (1860): 226–39].

Has examined nearly all British orchids.

Hooker’s error on Listera.

Change in colour and consistency of Drosera hair glands after leaf inflection. Analogous structures in Dionaea. Requests Oliver confirm these observations on live plants, of which he has none.

In a muddle over the effects of salts on insectivorous plants.

Discusses letter from A. W. v. Hofmann concerning solution of iodine in water.

Comments on Rodwell’s discussion of the “struggle for life” with reference to languages and G. H. Lewes’s article in the Cornhill Magazine (Lewes 1860, pp. 445–7). Comments on Rodwell’s account of horses affected by mildewed pasturage, and asks for more information about his white cat.

Thanks for information and extracts.

M. A. Curtis, quoted in ["Dionaea"] Penny encyclopedia [(1837) 8: 508], gives the only full account of Dionaea.

Concurs in DO’s explanation of Dionaea footstalk cells, which CD took for stomata.

Is using carbonate of ammonia as a substitute for flies and colour change in glands as index of action on Drosera. Suspects other nitrogenous compounds do not act till decomposed into carbonate of ammonia. Beginning to write Drosera paper. Action of nitrogenous compounds.

The best way to see cell movement in Drosera hair, is to cut off those lately inflected over a fly, sketch shape of red matter under high power, and repeat after one or two minutes.

The hybrid case is most curious, if true. So many have tried to get hybrids from hare and rabbit.

Has done little regular work – correspondence on Origin has been gigantic.

Has amused himself working on power of Drosera to catch flies.

Sends an account of the destruction of wild rabbits by rats introduced from a wrecked ship.

Is thinking of publishing AG’s three-part Origin review [from Atlantic Monthly] in England.

Will take Natural History Review, but cannot write for it.

Has mass of notes on irritability in orchids,

but he ought to work on Variation.

Drosera was an interlude while away from home. Expectations for effect of carbonate of ammonia on Dionaea. The important phenomenon in Drosera is the segregation of the red fluid within the leaf, not action of carbonate of ammonia on the red fluid.

Thanks for fact about ducks in Ceylon. Asks for more information.

Pleased by GHKT’s sentence [about Origin].

Thanks RP for communicating the "Rat v. Rabbit case".

Compliments DO on his wealth of information.

Henrietta’s relapse.

Thanks for extract on Drosera.

Has been consulting with John Murray about the possibility of publishing AG’s three Atlantic Monthly articles [see 2910] as a pamphlet, but has been strongly advised against it.

Etty has had a relapse. "What the end will be, we know not."

Concern over Henrietta’s illness.

CD does not mind C. R. Bree’s dull, unvarying abuse and misrepresentation, but when he doubts CD’s deliberate word, "that is the act of a man who has not the soul of a gentleman in him".

JSH’s letter in Athenæum ["Flints in the drift", 20 Oct. 1860, p. 516] is interesting.

H. Freke’s paper [On the origin of species by means of organic affinity (1861)] is beyond CD’s scope.

Comments on interpretation of natural selection in DTA’s Geological gossip [1860].

Is enclosing Alfred Swaine Taylor’s book On poisons (1848). Reports on his own experiment with the starch test in dissolving iodine in different measures of water.

On the suggestion of Jeffries Wyman, he writes about the rats that he captured in Mammoth Cave in 1850. They were indeed blind. Reginald Mantell studied them and learned that with long exposure to graduated light, they became somewhat sensitised. Sends copy of an abstract which he wrote as a letter to A. H. Guyot ["On the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky", Am. Journal of Sci. and Arts 2d ser. 11 (1851)]. [See 3007.]