Frank asked to summarise work with CD for use in JDH’s Royal Society address.

Work with A. Gray shows Colorado plants closer to Altai than to E. or W. America.

Work with J. Ball shows Moroccan plants very distinct from nearby Canaries.

JDH on Royal Commission to Paris Exhibition.

Thanks CD for writing machine.

Recalls visit by CD’s son [Francis].

Botanical evidence is against F. B. White’s origin of St Helena fauna. JDH holds flora is S. African. Since plants must arrive before insects, if fauna is Palearctic then flora survived glacial period. Flora not Miocene since old and relic orders are absent. Suggests S. African west coastal mountains as insects’ origin.

Forms of flowers, translated by Édouard Heckel, is published.

Cross and self-fertilisation has only sold 450–500 copies.

Origin sells regularly; he looks forward to a cheaper edition.

Forwards letter from Victor Kennedy reporting on the growth of JT’s potatoes in W. Ireland.

Recounts the experiments on Fechner’s law he has found in Helmholz; they are on the smallest perceptible differences of illumination. Describes how to test whether plants’ responses to lights are in accordance with it.

Thanks for CD’s remarks on and agreement with his paper on history of pollination theories [see 11678].

Will shortly send his essay on the anatomy of nectaries in flowers [see 12300].

Forwards letter from George Callwell reporting what a large and disease-free potato crop JT’s seed yields.

Did cats and dogs become pets because they are scrupulous in the discharge of their faeces? He has a pet parakeet whose behaviour supports this view.

EAS eagerly awaits the publication of CD’s work on heliotropism.

Sends him a paper on "Polyembryonie" [Jenaische Z. Med. & Naturwiss. 12 (1878): 647–70].

Plans to produce a translation of Weismann’s Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie [1875–6] and would welcome a preface from CD.