Pleased with news of BAAS meeting

and Scott’s possible position as Thomas Anderson’s curator.

Suggests Wallace is due for a Royal Medal.

Agrees with JDH’s criticism of Lyell’s address [see 4614].

Bentham’s Linnean Society address treats continuity of life in a vague non-natural sense.

Rereading his old MS [Natural selection] CD is impressed with work he had already done.

Writing Variation much harder than Climbing plants.

Encloses request to JDH to propose, or suggest on his behalf, that the Ray Society publish a translation of C. F. von Gärtner’s Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849).

BJS’s health much improved by his continental tour.

Would like to visit JH, together with his friend Dr. P. H. A. Moritz, Director of the Observatory at Tiflis.

Is returning JH's paper on 'solar spots.' Comments on George Wilson of Glasgow and his suggestions on the use of telescopes. Encloses copy of a letter on the Moon's rotation. Was pleased to see JH's letter in the Times on the agreement between Scripture and Science.