Thanks for BJS’s account of the Fuegians. CD would have predicted that "not all the missionaries in the world could have done what has been done".

Will proof-read his preface to Weismann’s Studien.

Wants plants with two sets of anthers of different colours. Fritz Müller letter [13041a] has made him wish to renew experiments and observations carried out 20 years ago.

Comments on HMW’s discovery concerning growth of hair on human ears. Asks permission to publish fact.

Thanks JVC for corrections of Movement in plants. Sends a clarifying sentence.

Earthworms nearly done – "a small book of little moment".

Reports his health is better than it was, "but I have little strength & feel very old".

Discusses difficulties involved in plant experiment designed to test Pangenesis.

Has received WBT’s fine work [Edward Blyth, The natural history of the cranes, enlarged and reprinted by WBT (1881)].

Thanks EBT for gift of Anthropology [1881].

Encourages HMW’s study of growth of hair on ears. Recommends he publish findings in Nature.

Comments on facts about goatsucker and dorkings.

Wishes the society and its publications every success.

Reports splendid cases of "paraheliotropism" which he now believes is one of the commonest movements of plants.

Wants Monochaetum flowers for examination as he has forgotten the structure and cannot publish until he has repeated his observations and experiments.

Thanks for Monochaetum flowers; his old notes have now become intelligible.

CD is familiar with EJL’s work [on Asplenium movements]; finds Asplenium an unusual case.

About Francis Darwin’s application for election to [Royal] Society.

Earthworm book with printer.

Has sent FM’s observations on paraheliotropism to Nature ["Movement of leaves", Collected papers 2: 228–9].

Plants with differently coloured anthers.

Intends gathering together his notes on "bloom".

CD gives his opinion on vivisection with the understanding that the whole letter will be published. Worked for Act of Parliament, but disapproves of the one passed. CD convinced English physiologists do not perform cruel experiments.

Summarises a letter from Fritz Müller [missing] giving details of leaf movement in Mucuna, Desmodium, and Bauhinia. CD is especially interested in the paraheliotropic movements, which appear to be as common as sleep movements.

Discusses concept of intelligence in his Earthworms manuscript.

Remarks on GJR’s work on echinoderms.

Comments on Wilhelm Roux [Der Kampf der Theile im Organismus (1881)].

Discusses animal instincts, citing Fabre’s description of sand-wasps.

Suggests that the pappus of Compositae, when lying on ground, may absorb water which may function in seed germination.