Birds that have been hybridised.

Writes of WED’s recent excursion to Manchester and his future educational plans.

Comments on species with disjoined ranges; does not feel, despite CD’s expectations, that they tend to belong to small families.

Gives the proportion of U. S. trees in which the sexes are separate [see Natural selection, p. 62].

Qualifications of John Lindley, Huxley, Albany Hancock, Joseph Prestwich, J. C. Ross, and Francis Beaufort for Royal Medal.

"Law" [see 2092] correlating variability and abnormal development not confirmed by JDH for plants.

CD studies struggle for existence in his weed garden.

Scotch fir observed at Moor Park.

Royal Society medals.

Correlation of variability and abnormal development is G. R. Waterhouse’s law. Relation of this law to polymorphism.

Colouring and marks of ancestral horse deduced from facts observed in pigeons.

Discusses difficulties involved in deciding which genera are protean in the light of some comments by H. C. Watson.

Sends a reference to Subularia which bears on a query CD made some time ago [see 2002]. Subularia was seen to flower in the air in a remarkably dry season.

Seedling leaves of gorse look like clover leaves. This is like young lions being striped. Thus, laws of animal embryology apply to plants.

Embryology of plants of low systematic order. Comparative development begins only with first post-cotyledonary leaves.

Curt letter to JDH from George Henslow.

Memorandum about £250 investment in Patent Siliceous Stone Company, owned by David Thomas Ansted and Frederick Ransome.

George Henslow’s curtness to JDH: "an attack of religion".

Embryonic leaves. Adaptive functions and taxonomic significance of cotyledons.

Asa Gray. Separation of sexes in U. S. trees.

Does JDH’s Wahlenbergia confirm CD’s law? Variations of one species assume the character of a distinct but allied species or genus.

Seed-salting: old ones float and germinate.

Owen’s "grand paper" [? J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 2 (1858): 1–37].

THH comments on G. A. Brullé’s paper ["Researches upon the transformations of the appendages of the Articulata", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 13 (1844): 484–6].

Thanks JL for saving him from "a disgraceful blunder". Following their conversation he has divided the New Zealand flora as JL suggested and finds genera with four or more species are more variable than those with three or less. It will take several weeks to go back over all his material.

Asks to borrow several Floras. Must redo calculations as John Lubbock has shown him an important error.

States he has "misgivings about the definiteness of species". Believes there is some inherent tendency for plants to originate varieties. Cross-fertilisation is likely in most cases but sees difficulties with plants like Adlumia.

Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.

Delighted that JSH is coming to Down. Sends correct train time.

He was unaware that varieties occurred proportionately more in large genera.

Recommends a work [Leonard Gyllenhaal, Insecta Suecica, 4 vols. (1808–27)] for tabulating varieties.

Lists "close geographical representatives of Europaean species" based on the species numbers [in T. V. Wollaston, Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira (1857)].