The [Megatherium] fossils were extremely interesting and were shown at the Geological Section of the BAAS meeting at Cambridge [1833].

The plants delight him; will work them out with W. J. Hooker.

CD should send every fossil he can find; minute insects will be nearly all new. Delighted with descriptions of the few animals alluded to.

Delighted that JSH is coming to Down. Sends correct train time.

JSH’s Myosotis is beginning to sport. Asks whether some features are not odd.

Sends details on Myosotis sports. Feels sure he could make any flower in some degree monstrous in four or five generations.

Mrs Henslow’s death stirs reminiscences of happier days.

CD and his family have come to the seashore, driven from home by scarlet fever at Down, death [of Charles Waring Darwin], and other family illness. Sorry to miss seeing JSH.

Would be grateful to hear his objections to CD’s species speculations.

Thanks JSH for his magnificent present. Hopes Hooker will bring the specimens.

Have water-fowl ever been seen at Ipswich on Mr Ransome’s great tank?

Arrangements to meet JSH at station for his visit to Down.

CD’s cargo is safe; the fossils have been sent to William Clift.

JSH asks for dried plants (those sent were all of greatest interest).

Sends news of Cambridge and mutual friends.

Sends the Origin to his "dear old master in natural history"; fears he will not approve of his pupil in this case. Asks for criticisms. If JSH is even in slight degree staggered on the immutability of species, CD is convinced that he will be more staggered on further reflection – this has been the process of his own mind.

Thanks JSH for specimens. Comments on the structure of a hornet comb and asks JSH to obtain some fresh combs for him and to make observations for him. He is greatly interested in "these wondrous architectural instincts".

Thanks for L. Jenyns’ very sensible letter [missing].

Will be delighted to see JSH whenever he can come.

Sends directions for JSH’s journey to Bromley and Down.

Reminds JSH to send "sketch & account of the wasp’s comb in transitional state from horizontal to vertical, & the country whence procured".

Asks for information on spread of Anacharis [Elodea].

Sedgwick [in criticism of Origin] was not very fair, but Murray says it is splendid for selling copies to "the unfortunate students".

Sketch and description of a [wasp’s] nest from Cuba. [Notes by CD on wasps’ nests and comb-building habits of hive-bees.]

Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.

Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].

JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".

Comments on Richard Owen’s review of the Origin [in Edinburgh Rev. 111 (1860): 487–532]. Considers Owen unfair to CD and most ungenerous toward Hooker.

Expects Sedgwick to be fierce against him. Sedgwick also misrepresented CD in his Spectator review [24 Mar and 7 Apr 1860].

Compares natural selection to the undulatory theory of light as a hypothesis explaining a large number of facts.

Describes Sedgwick’s attack on CD’s views [at Cambridge Philosophical Society] and his own defence, though he believes CD has pressed his hypothesis too far.

Thanks JSH for his defence [see 2794].

He is not hurt for long by what his attackers say. His conclusions were arrived at after long study. He has certainly erred, but not so much as "Sedgwick and Co." think.

Asks JSH to send names of plants that vary greatly in length of pistil.

Sends characters by which he can divide all primroses and cowslips into what he suspects will be male and female plants. Believes these forms are first step in formation of a dioecious plant.