Has been interested in copy of HD’s letter to H. T. Stainton on numerical proportions of the sexes of insects. Do they vary during different years?

Does he have opinions about the courtships of butterflies?

Will send a copy of his paper on Primula when it is published. [See 5997.]

Thanks JEG for answering questions so fully and clearly, especially as he is troubled with his eyes.

Thanks HTS for his valuable information. Hopes to arrive at probable answer to question of proportion of males to females in the progeny of butterflies bred in domestication.

On courtship of butterflies, CD believes something more than chance is involved in determining which male is successful.

Arrangements to dine at JDH’s club.

Sends sheets with alterations to be made [in Russian translation of Variation]. VOK should consider adding to the title-page that CD is a Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg).

Payment of 400 guineas [Variation royalties] delights CD.

Thanks WS for information about moss roses and the Le Compte family.

Mentions WS’s recent papers on inheritance [Brit. & Foreign Med.-Chirurg. Rev. (1867)].

Acknowledges his election as a Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg.

Would like to meet with WBT while in London.

Acknowledges receipt of bill for £420.

Will try to attend Athenaeum meeting to help elect Clowes’s son.

Wishes he had known of the views of Hippocrates, which are almost identical to his Pangenesis hypothesis. CD advances it as provisional, but secretly expects some such view will have to be admitted.

Obliged for JP’s account of sheep. Such articles would make naturalists think more of natural selection.

E. A. Darwin’s health bad.

Asks about sex ratio in sheep births.

Discusses beaks and relative numbers of the sexes of goldfinches.

Comments on sexual selection among butterflies.

Mentions Kerguelen moth collected by Hooker.

Comments on JJW’s observations on coloured birds.

States his intentions regarding Horace’s future education. CD thought he had made those intentions clear in an earlier letter.

Asks to borrow Philosophical Transactions, vol. 157, pt 2 (1868).

Instructions for woodcuts showing sexual differences in beetles, for Descent.

Sends GGS examples of feathers from an albino peacock and repeats his query about the zones of colour [see 5950].

Regrets and apologises for a misunderstanding regarding Horace’s leaving Clapham School. Is sure he wrote an earlier letter which AW evidently did not receive.

Discusses tuition arrangements for Horace Darwin.

Assures AW he has not hurt Horace’s feelings. CD has always been doubtful about a private tutor for Horace. Fears a letter [giving notice of removal] was lost in the post.