Gratified by CD’s praise.
Describes plan of his new book [Island life (1880)].
Efforts to secure a post.
Sends enclosure [missing], which HD is to forward to W. E. Darwin, as everyone else has seen it.
Sends some cotton seeds for CD.
Discusses the grazing habits of sheep and cattle on steep hillsides.
Plans a "Darwin Festival" to celebrate CD’s birthday.
"I am much obliged for your note. I have heard of the other analogous cases, but there remains a doubt whether they may not be accidental coincidences, for such cases certainly occur in non-Jewish families.––"
The honour RLT proposes [Darwin Festival] is a great one, "but would it not be better to wait until I am in my grave?"
Responds to article in Nature on the sexual colours of butterflies [Collected papers 2: 220–2].
Sends a seedling Drosera capensis.
CD’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, must have published on arsenic, as his father never published on medical subjects.
Thanks for cotton seeds.
Germination of Megarrhiza.
Sends copy of Kosmos [containing Krause’s article on Erasmus Darwin].
Believes he can spare an Erasmus Darwin letter.
The violent stranding of floating ice as first mentioned in CD’s article ["Ancient glaciers of Caernarvonshire", Collected papers 1: 163–71] is the most remarkable of the Moel Tryfan phenomena.
What are functions of "yeomen of the armoury" on p. 1? Who is "old Hooker" on p. 34? Needs to explain them in annotations [to Erasmus Darwin].
The Birmingham Philosophical Society proposes to celebrate CD’s birthday and make him their first Honorary Member. RLT will draft the address.
Suspects WTT-D is the author of a good review of Erasmus Darwin in Nature [21 (1880): 245–7].
Sends publications.
Discusses comparative anatomy and evolutionary implications of several ligaments.
Thinks effects of Chinese foot-binding are inherited.
Criticises article on Darwinism in Brockhaus’ Lexikon.
Mentions forthcoming book on mammalian vertebrae.
Describes the germination and early growth of Megarrhiza about which AG has been misinformed. The tubular petioles act functionally like a root.
Ipomoea did not germinate.
Replies to EK’s queries about German translation of CD’s preface to Erasmus Darwin.
Sends seed attached to breast feathers of a heron that had been shot.
