CD requests accurate information on the extent to which the different varieties of fruit-trees produce seedlings like their parents. Do some varieties of pears and apples tend to produce truer offspring than other varieties?
Gives references to William Allen’s narrative of the Niger expedition [William Allen and T. R. H. Thompson , A narrative of the expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to the river Niger in 1841 (1848)]: common fowl returning to wildness, details of domestic sheep, ducks, and white fowl.
Range of the fallow deer; its affinity to the Barbary stag.
Natural propensity of donkeys for arid desert.
Indian donkeys often have zebra markings on the legs.
Believes the common domestic cat of India is indigenous.
Occurrence of cultivated plants from Europe in India; success of cultivation. Ancient history of cultivated plants.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum and indicate that it was originally 20 pages long.]
Requests skins of domestic breeds or races of poultry, pigeons, rabbits, cats, and dogs from any unfrequented region. [Attached is a list of people to whom CD has written for pigeon and poultry skins.]
CD has more specimens of Helix pomatia.
Thanks for Lepidoptera book.
Invites JL to dinner.
Discusses distribution of shells.
"Dr Gully did me much good." Hopes WHB profited by water cure.
Darwin requests skins of various animals from any region that has not been visited frequently.
Recommends publication of Leonard Horner’s account of researches in alluvial deposits of Egypt [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 145 (1855): 105–38]. It contains valuable observations which will probably become of still higher value in future.
Notes on the interbreeding of different races of silkworm. [Forwarded with explanatory note by Edward Blyth.]
