Informs CD third edition of Origin is exhausted. Proposes a new edition. Has CD any changes? Since demand is slowing up, proposes printing only 1250 copies and deferring payment of CD’s share until sales have repaid manufacturing costs.

Sends papers on graft-hybrids ["Sur les hybrides obtenus par la greffe", Bull. Congr. Int. Bot. & Hortic. Amsterdam (1865): 65–80, and "Über Mischlinge, durch Pfropfen entstanden", Sitzungsber. K. Phys.-oekon. Ges. Königsberg 6 (1865): 11–21].

Has received the larva of the batrachian. Outlines its affinities. Problems of batrachian systematics.

William asks what to do about a complication in settling Aunt Catherine’s estate.

As Honorary Secretary of the Botanical Congress he asks that CD’s name be listed as a member of its committee.

Discusses the stinging habits of wasps and bees and whether or not they leave their sting in the wound.

Feels sure that at times the globe must have been superficially cooler. Believes CD will turn out right with regard to migration across the equator via mountain chains, while the tropical heat of certain lowlands was retained.

Reviewing C. V. Naudin’s article ["Nouvelles recherches sur l’hybridité dans les végétaux", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 19 (1863): 180–203] for Popular Science Review [5 (1866): 304–13]. Requests references.

Proposes to visit Down on Easter weekend.

Thanks for references for his Naudin–hybridism paper [see 5029].

Asks, on behalf of his father, whether he might publish a new German translation of the Origin, believing Bronn’s to be inadequate.

Forgot to thank CD for his praise of tendril paper [see 4944].

Cannot come to Down on weekend because of teaching duties.

Describes plans for new German edition of Origin [1867].

Oswald Heer [in Die Urwelt der Schweiz (1866)] agrees with CD that Swiss ants (Formica sanguinea) capture more slaves than do British ants. Does this contradict selection, since the British ants are exposed to harder conditions and a poorer fauna?

Sends CD comb of the Chinese honey-bee, as requested.

Calls for more study of behaviour and less of classification to determine whether descent theory can bear the weight not [only] of reasoning but of fact. Hopes CD’s intended book [Variation] will help.

Thanks for explanation on relative fertility of homostyled and heterostyled crosses in Primula. Sends an intermediate form with small stamens, but stigma only slightly above stamens.

Election as Botanical Lecturer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.

In response to a letter from RS’s father [translation enclosed] Schweizerbart has suggested H. B. Geinitz revise Bronn’s edition of the Origin, but RS doubts he is suitable.

Reference to description of Begonia phyllomaniaca.

Thanks for the explicit account of Pangenesis. Thinks he now follows CD’s ideas but Pangenesis is very difficult and speculative.

Oliver has lost his little girl.

Sends copies of Science gossip and The leisure hour.

Enjoyed visit.

His criticism of Primula fertility referred to table 2 [Collected papers 2: 56] where weight of seeds produced from good pods by long-styled homostylous cross and short-styled heterostylous cross are virtually identical.