A circular letter on the distribution of his money at death and the division ofErasmus’ estate.
Nathan Hubbersty [of Cambridge days] is very ill.
Comte [de Paris] will have plants next summer.
Arruda Furtado will send his mountain plants from Azores.
Did not intend his last letter as criticism. Is sure CD would not "wriggle out" of a difficulty if he had observed it.
Sends CD a wasps’ nest.
Asks for a testimonial from CD to enable him to get an adequate Treasury pension. An accident at work has killed his son and injured him to such an extent that he must resign his appointment.
No frogs or toads are able to live in completely closed holes. Cites experiment by William Buckland.
Details of new will. 12/74ths to each son and 7/74ths to each daughter.
Division of CW’s share [of E. A. Darwin’s estate]. Investment advice.
Recounts his memories of their mother and of her death. Remembers "her black velvet gown and her work table and the death scene", but cannot remember her face. Remembers that Caroline "always acted like a mother" to him and Catherine.
Hopes Anthony Rich will keep to his intention of leaving his fortune to CD, despite CD’s increased wealth.
His BAAS address at York in Nature ["The rise and progress of palaeontology" 24 (1881): 452–5].
Wasps’ nest has arrived.
Gives his view of how queen wasp builds a hexagonal cell by straightening walls between several cells, which she builds at the same time.
Reports on the behaviour of the Peruvian cow bird, Molothrus, which lays its eggs in other birds’ nests.
Sends CD a circular [missing] and asks whether he will add his name to group [Anti-Aggression League].
Although he agrees with the object of HS’s league he will not join until he has seen how it works.
Clarifies some details of CD’s new will.
Asks CD for a testimonial as he is a candidate for Chair in Zoology at Oxford.
Gives his high opinion of HNM’s abilities.
WMH’s agent taking will to Down for CD to sign.
Ludwig Büchner is in London. Requests interview for him with CD on Wednesday or Thursday; he leaves Friday.
Finds it difficult to reconcile evolution with Mosaic record, but thinks it does not necessarily involve "infidel" principles.
Asks "How life born of an egg, can evolve life born of a mammal?"
Thanks HTS for a Dahlia flower, but analogous cases of such "bud-variation" have been observed before.