Was glad to see CD at museum.

Asks CD to sign and return enclosed item.

CD did not cover oysters in his book; FB can point out curious facts about them.

Forwards H. T. Stainton letter for reply.

Finds many Cucurbita have tendrils with sticking ends.

The "potentiality of so many organs in plants to play so many parts is one of the most wonderful of your discoveries . . . one day it will itself play a prodigious part in the interpretation of both morphological and physiological facts".

Is disgusted with Sabine’s address [see 4708] because of its mutilation of what JDH wrote.

THH’s slashing leader in Reader ["Science and ""Church policy"" ", 4 (1864): 821] – as usual he destroys all in his path.

Encloses letter from G. H. K. Thwaites with a message for CD [see encl].

Has just been shown CD’s remarks on Tennyson. Upbraids CD for "Owen-like quotation" out of context, and getting source wrong. "If ""facts"" in Origin are of this sort I agree with Bishop of Oxford."

Sends photograph.

THH wishes he could write the popular zoology but writing is a boring and slow process when he is not interested, and he is overburdened with lectures.

Thanks for Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].

T. S. Cobbold’s book on the Entozoa [1864].

Remarks on development of the tapeworm.

Regrets he has not yet finished his monograph on Bos. Has examined and discusses the Bos skull from Lord Tankerville.

Would like CD’s opinion on the conclusions in LR’s paper on fossil horses.

Thanks CD for his Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].

Tells of the birth of his 16th child. Has five grandchildren.

Thanks CD for his paper on Lythrum [Collected papers 2: 106–31].

Astonished by CD’s powers of observation and perseverance.

His elms raised from three varieties of weeping elms are doing well.

Bentham wants "Climbing plants" for Journal of the Linnean Society, however long [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1865): 1–118]. Publication in Proceedings of the Royal Society restricts correspondence.

Reader much improved.

Tyndall did write piece on spiritualism ["Science and the spirits", Reader 4 (1864): 725–6].

"Suppressed gout" annoys him as a term cloaking ignorance.

Thanks for [E. Eudes?] Deslongchamps’ paper.

Henry Huxley born.

Leader in Reader [4 (1864): 821] is by THH. It has got him into trouble with some of his friends.

His view of Origin.

Belief of Duke of Argyll that substituting "variation" and "selection" for creation deifies them.

Thinks Argyll would accept evolution except for man.

A’s view of humming-birds.

Describes discussion with [Victoria,] Princess Royal of Prussia, about evolution.

New edition of Elements consistent with Origin.

New herbarium is finished.

Congratulations on Copley Medal.

Cannot come until week from Saturday.

Worked to death by Genera plantarum.

Comments on his Primula paper [see 4213].

Describes his situation in Calcutta.

His distress that his engagement has been broken off.

Sends copies of two papers ["On the parrots of the Malayan region", Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1864): 279–97;

"On the physical geography of the Malay Archipelago", J. R. Geogr. Soc. 33 (1863): 217–34].

No summary available.

Species of lice and the animals they infest. Different kinds of dogs, fowls, and pigeons are infested by the same species of Pediculi [see Descent 1: 219].

John Scott has arrived in Calcutta and has been given an appointment by Thomas Anderson.

J. D. Hooker will not be able to visit CD because of ill health.

Pleased at receiving CD’s letter.

HWB informs him of favourable notice of the mimetic paper [in Wiegmann’s Arch. Naturgesch. 29 (1863) pt 2: 315–19].

He is pleased with his post [Asst. Sec. of Royal Geographical Society].