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.]

John Scott’s paper [see 4332] read at Linnean Society; praised by George Bentham.

Himalayan pine in Macedonia.

JDH is in a quarrel with H. C. Watson.

He has examined Hoya flowers with Bentham and Oliver, but they are not satisfied about the five processes alternating with the sepals. [See Forms of flowers, pp. 331–2.] Sends specimens of plants.

Babington’s surprise at JDH’s advocacy of Darwinian views at Norwich [BAAS meeting].

Criticism of the behaviour of the trustees of the British Museum [in the Challenger affair].

Has been looking at separation of sexes in poplars.

Interested in reversion.

Does not understand all CD said on inheritance.

JDH now remembers that Origin was "published" some time before it was "distributed" and therefore appeared prior to his own essay [see also 2478].

Impossible to say whether some Dipterocarpaceae survived a cold period or have developed since.

Finds CD’s results [of his survey of well-marked varieties from A. P. and Alphonse de Candolle’s Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis (1824–73)] "very curious and suggestive". Thinks the Labiatae will present an obstacle to him as it is a very large and distinct order with well-defined species and genera. Would like to see him tackle more volumes of Candolle’s Prodromus, as his case can only be established by evidence from mundane plants. CD should beware of generalising from local species variability. A comparison of C. C. Babington’s and G. Bentham’s [British] Floras [Babington Manual of British botany (1843, 4th ed., 1856); Bentham Handbook of British flora (1858)] would be invaluable. Suggests CD write to Ferdinand Müller and Charles Moore in Australia. Moisture favouring extension of species is important for CD’s view.

Continued objections to methods and conclusions of CD’s survey.

CD’s divergent series explains those anomalous plants that hover between what would otherwise be two species in a genus.

Inclined to see conifers as a sub-series of dicotyledons that developed in parallel to monocotyledons, but retained cryptogamic characters.

Mentions H. C. Watson’s view of variations.

Man has destroyed more species than he has created varieties.

Variations are centrifugal because the chances are a million to one that identity of form once lost will return.

In the human race, we find no reversion "that would lead us to confound a man with his ancestors".

Wrote a "frightful screed" about aristocracy’s being a necessary consequence of natural selection, and then burnt it.

H. W. Bates is the only man "thinking out" natural selection to any purpose. "I think I have driven Bates back to Nat. Sel. as the only way of solving his difficulties."

HWB’s mimetic butterflies.

JDH wishes he had time to do the same thing with plants.

Owen and Huxley involved in a "contemptible" squabble in the Edinburgh newspapers.

Maximovitch reports Stellaria bulbifera is a Siberian form which never ripens its seeds.

Wife’s health improved by trip.

Heer’s collections convince JDH that Miocene vegetation was Himalayan, not American, as Heer supposed.

Zurich promises to be a good natural history school.

Review of Natural History Review in Parthenon [1 (1862): 373–5].

JDH explains why he cannot take Scott on at Kew.

John Tyndall cannot answer CD’s questions on glaciers. Edward Frankland’s ignorance. In JDH’s opinion, heaviness of winter snowfall is the greatest element in size of glaciers and this is a function of low mean temperature. Discusses descent of glaciers.

Sabine’s address, printed in the Reader [4 (1864): 708–9], is good on the whole. Sends Huxley’s account of the row.

Praises John Ruskin’s eloquent reply to Jukes.

Will not be inclined to challenge Pangenesis.

Admits CD’s victory over JDH’s continental hypothesis (but will not give up Greenland).

Relation of variation to circumstances is shown by discovery of endemic St Helena umbellifer having same palm-like habit as an endemic Madeiran species.

Has completed Boott’s Carices [Illustrations of the genus Carex, pt 4 (1867)],

is printing W. H. Harvey’s work [Genera of South African plants, 2d ed. (1868)],

and is revising English edition of Alphonse de Candolle’s Laws of botanical nomenclature [trans. H. A. Weddell (1868)].

Arrangements at Kew. Gardener [John Smith] is very ill; Oliver reigns supreme in the Herbarium.

Oliver overlooked CD’s request about rutaceous flowers. Of precisely which points about the ovules does CD want illustrations?

Could not believe Owen to be so demoniacal as to write the Athenæum review [of Variation].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [see 5918] is weak. CD’s ideas on causes of variation may be as hazy as the reviewer’s.

Huxley’s clever remark on Pangenesis. JDH’s view of Pangenesis as fundamental to development doctrines, but nothing is gained by formulation in terms of germs or gemmules.

Tries to answer question on last page of CD’s letter anent sexuality.

Did not intend to imply that Hallett said variation stopped, but that it arrives at a point where further accumulation in direction sought is so slow as to result practically in fixity of type – but not absolute fixity.

Duke of Argyll has requested JDH to superintend publication of a flora of India. JDH thinks he [Argyll] is paying him off for his kick at natural theology.

Willy [Hooker] returning from New Zealand.

A unique character in Drosophyllum.

Sees no reason for CD to contribute to Ross and Faraday memorials.

Plans to write an account of his trip to Morocco and, with John Ball, the botanical geography, for Linnean Society.

Results mainly negative; the Atlas exhibits "the dying out of European flora".

Only two or three beetles above 8000ft.

Disappointed that Canary Island species are absent from Atlas mountains; but an ocean current along Moroccan coast should help migration of Spanish, Portuguese, and Moroccan seeds to Canaries and Madeira.

Describes Lyell’s poor physical condition. Asks CD for his observations of symptoms.

Thanks for pleasant stay at Down.

Remarks on boulders found on southern islands.

Describes the alpine character of the Andes flora and relays information on other mountain floras.

Quotes instances of seeds that retained their vitality after being carried by ocean currents.

Sends notes on the comparative floras of New Zealand, Australia, and west coast of South America.

Encloses a copy of part of a letter from George Gardner in Ceylon concerning the European character of the mountain flora.

Thiselton-Dyer’s appointment has come.

Wants to discuss insectivorous plants and get some experiments going.

His appreciation of Insectivorous plants, especially Utricularia section.

JDH will arrive by train on Saturday.