CD is collecting [for Variation] all accounts of what some call "sports" and what he calls "bud-variations". He asks whether very slight variations in fruit appear suddenly by buds, or whether only rather strongly marked varieties thus appear.

Thanks for letter [missing] and help.

Asks about the effect said to be produced on the stock by a graft.

Health prevents accepting TR’s invitation.

Thanks for parcel of shoots with several interesting cases of "bud-variation".

Asks for information about roses.

Strange that great changes in peaches are less rare than slight ones and no case seems recorded of new apples or pears or apricots by "bud-variation". "How ignorant we are!"

Thanks for "rich and valuable" letter [missing].

Has read TR’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle ["Seedling fruits – plums", (1863): 27] – "a treasure to me".

Questions about seedling peaches that approach almonds.

Asks whether TR has ever observed varieties of plants growing close to other varieties for several generations without being affected by crossing.

Particularly interested in TR’s information about peaches. Accepts offer of double-flowering peach-trees.

Will build a small hothouse for experiments.

Can TR distinguish generally, always, or never, a nectarine-tree from a peach-tree before it flowers or before it fruits? He wants to quote TR’s answer.

Sends some trees to CD.

Would be pleased to receive the copy of Origin offered by CD as gift.

Will give CD any tree or shrub he may want.

Refers to curious strawberry hybrids noticed in Journal of Horticulture [I. Anderson-Henry, "Crossing strawberries", J. Hortic. n.s. 4 (1863): 45–6].

Has received the two trees sent by TR. Is anxious to see the fruit of the double peach.

The Origin is being sent.

Thanks CD for Origin.

TR has often thought naturalists do not pay enough attention to the effect of site, soil, and climate on animals and plants and "hence has arisen the enormous number of so-called species".

His observations on people of different counties.

Asks CD’s views on TR’s observations that leaves breathe from their under-surfaces.

Peach-trees in hothouses cannot be kept in health unless fresh air is admitted so as to make its way under the leaves.

Continues his observations on the effect of environment on men – those migrating to America gradually assuming Indian-like features.

Answers TR’s query about stomata.

CD will use "weeping trees" as an example of how inexplicable the laws of inheritance are, and asks for facts on character of seedlings.

His observations of "selection" in growth of seedling trees.

Delighted by curious case of inheritance in the weeping ash [cited in missing letter from TR] "which produced weeping seedlings and itself lost the weeping peculiarity!" Wishes he could get authentic information on the weeping elm.

What TR says of seedlings conquering each other well illustrates struggle for existence and natural selection.

Thanks for information on weeping trees; asks for a few weeping elm seeds.

The double peach is in flower; the almond has not flowered; will beg a specimen of fruit later.

Has been unwell.

Tells of Hooker’s admiration for TR’s articles.

Doubts the fruit will stick on his Chinese double peach and asks TR to send him a couple when ripe.

Would like to grow seeds of the "curious monstrosity" of a wall-flower, to see whether the monstrosity is hereditary.

The almond-tree TR gave him produced no fruit, but the Chinese double peach has three. Asks for ripe almond fruits and any odd peaches, to compare the stones.

Asks about modification in fruit or foliage in any fruit-trees from being grafted,

and about seedlings of pears and wheat said to have been found in hedges and woods.

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.

Thanks CD for "Climbing plants" [see 4861].

Encloses sketch of a climbing French bean.

Tells of a row of non-climbing haricot beans that in good season put out slender climbing shoots.

He has the peach almond in fruit this season.

Asks for racemes of Cytisus purpureus-elongatus and C. adami for comparison, because Robert Caspary argues that C. adami is not a common hybrid.

Will be sure to send the Cytisus and Laburnum blooms when they flower.