Harvey’s letter to JDH more accepting of natural selection than CD expected.

Battle over Origin is raging in the United States.

Weary of hostile reviews.

Doubts about going to Oxford [for BAAS meeting].

CD’s response to criticism of natural selection. Exasperated at not being understood. He tries to narrow the gap between himself and JDH.

Floral anatomy of Goodeniaceae: although flowers seem to fertilise themselves by pistil moving to anther, CD shows that insect agency is necessary. Wants JDH to check his interpretation of stigmatic surface.

Progress of [Thomas?] Thomson and G. H. K. Thwaites on accepting mutability.

Bee orchid pollination.

JDH has written to CD on homologies of stigma in Goodeniaceae.

Going for hydropathy. Too ill for Oxford BAAS meeting.

Pollination by minute insects.

CD proves his view regarding Goodenia stigmatic surfaces by dissection and following pollen-tubes up to grains.

CD, ill and despondent about hostile reviews, is cheered by JDH’s account of Oxford battle, particularly by willingness of JDH and Huxley to fight for CD’s theory in public.

Reread JDH’s letter "with infinite pleasure".

Plans to visit Kew.

CD will visit Kew on way home from E. W. Lane’s hydropathy establishment.

Floral anatomy; pistil curvature and pistil movement. CD’s rule that bent pistils occur in "gangway" into nectaries.

The book JDH is planning, which he and CD discussed at Kew, should deal with plant reproduction.

Asa Gray’s anonymous review.

"Intensely interested" in orchid homologies; like a "game of chess".

CD’s reaction to review of the Origin [by Samuel Wilberforce] in Quarterly Review [see 2881].

Asa Gray’s articles in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [10 Apr 1860] excellent; considering asking Athenæum to reprint them.

Casual observations on Drosera.

Wants to know author of good review of Origin in London Review [& Wkly J. Polit. 1 (1860): 11–12, 32–3, 58–9].

Athenæum will reprint Gray’s discussion.

Observations on Drosera: plants can distinguish minute quantities of nitrogenous substances.

Owen wants to be civil, and sneer behind CD’s back.

Those, like Rudolph Wagner, who want to go halfway on theory, are "booked to go further".

Anatomy of orchids.

Huxley says K. E. von Baer goes "a great way with me".

CD has a low opinion of British entomologists.

Lyell’s ingenious difficulties with natural selection show he is in earnest.

Asks JDH to observe beetles and variation of stripes in mules on his Syrian tour.

Thanks JDH for agreeing to observe coats of asses and mules in Middle East.

Asks for observations on vigour of plants as JDH ascends mountains.

Ad hominem article in Athenæum [review of John Tyndall, Glaciers of the Alps, 1 Sept 1860, pp. 280–2].

Reports extensive experiments on Drosera.

Observations on orchid anatomy.

Welcomes JDH home from Middle Eastern expedition.

Preparing new edition of Origin and asks for JDH’s corrections and criticisms.

Third edition of Origin will answer reviewers.

Drosera experiments detailed.

Hopes for W. H. Harvey’s conversion.