Returns copy [of J. Hortic. Soc. Lond.]. Mentions article by William Herbert ["Local habitation and wants of plants", J. Hortic. Soc. Lond. 1 (1846): 44–9].

Has had to make a Post Office order to JDH payable at Charing Cross instead of Kew.

Does Sir William [Hooker] know the Dean of Manchester’s London address?

Thanks for note on Atlantic dust.

Suggested in private to Edward Forbes that bird migration might follow lines of now sunken land.

Has admired WT’s work for years.

Will some day publish on variation.

Glad to hear of JDH’s botanical appointment [with Geological Survey].

Edward Forbes has written about his subsidence doctrine; CD objects to its hypothetical base.

Answers CD’s objections with botanical and geological arguments supporting the existence of an ancient post-Miocene land extending over what is now the Mediterranean and past the Azores in the Atlantic [EF’s "Atlantis" theory in "On the connexion between the distribution of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 336–432].

Sends enclosure for JDH to read [letter from E. Forbes, 956]. "I cannot see my way about his post-miocene land."

Thanks for Edward Forbes’s letter. Botanical evidence conflicts with parts of his theory but supports others. Is becoming more of a migrationist.

Bentham agrees with JDH on polymorphism.

Asks to visit RO to talk about mammifers of the [Rio] Plata.

Describes Infusoria in Rio Gallegos samples.

"Fluthgebiete" means estuary deposit.

Discusses dust samples from Malta. Asks for further samples.

Agrees with JDH about Forbes’s views.

Discusses A. Saint-Hilaire’s lectures and asks on what grounds botanists judge the relative "highness" of plants.

C. G. Ehrenberg wants specimen grasses from Ascension Island.

If JDH can send grasses CD will write to Ehrenberg enclosing them.

JDH recognises the existence of "altered states" of continental species in island floras. The botanists’ difficulty in determining a new species is no grounds for dismissing the important question of altered forms.

Will look for Ascension plants for Ehrenberg.

French Galapagos collections confirm JDH’s view that plants arrived from north.

Cannot agree with Forbes on North Atlantic flora.

Botanical definition of "highness" and "lowness" usually means complexity and simplicity.

Some plants, such as aquatic ones, are cleistogamous. Cannot see why they should not be.

Sends copy [of "Fine dust in the Atlantic Ocean", Collected papers 1: 199–202]. Attempting to obtain further samples for CGE.

Hugh Falconer gives no specific objections to Forbes’s views.

Botanical contrast between Cape of Good Hope and the rest of Africa is as strong as that between Australia and India.

Wishes CD would leave off snuff.

Discusses publication of his book [South America].

Sends specimens of grasses from Ascension Island for CD to forward to Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.

Includes list of indigenous flowering plants of Ascension Island.

Sends a list of mammalian remains found in the Buenos Aires district and purchased by the British Museum.

Thanks for the gift of Frémont 1845. Has had a visit from R. J. Mackintosh and his wife Mary, Appleton’s sister.

Thanks for his note; as soon as CD knows how many Cordillera Tertiary fossil shells require illustration he will make arrangements for GBS jr to begin.