Has seen that ARW has read a paper to the Linnean Society.

Thinks that Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics (Spencer 1851) would be too deep for him.

Proposes to support John Scott in research on relative fertility and self-incompatibility of plants. CD would pay him for a year or two but wants JDH to give him research facilities at Kew.

References to and résumés of articles on climbing plants.

JDH explains why he cannot take Scott on at Kew.

John Tyndall cannot answer CD’s questions on glaciers. Edward Frankland’s ignorance. In JDH’s opinion, heaviness of winter snowfall is the greatest element in size of glaciers and this is a function of low mean temperature. Discusses descent of glaciers.

Marvels that seeds from the lump of clay on the partridge’s foot have germinated. At Zoological Society [J. E.?] Gray ridiculed him. Now Frank Buckland would like to see the specimen.

JDH has written to J. H. Balfour for a character reference for John Scott.

Reports on a strange breed of sheep at Aden,

a Brazilian plant naturalised in Ceylon,

the Australian Casuarina equisetum spreading in Taiwan,

and an excrescence on wing of several thrushes of Taiwan similar to a growth on wing of a Syrian species.

Asks how he can identify pollen-tubes.

Has succeeded in impregnating orchids of widely different genera with each other’s pollinia. "Is not this something new?"

Offers to exchange Catasetum for other varieties.

Sees difficulty of placing Scott at Kew. Suspects Balfour is prejudiced because Scott is a Darwinian.

CD’s former letter on Clematis [4403] blundered; work now being revised.

Enquires about the relationship of English grains to French milligrammes.

J. H. Balfour gives Scott excellent character reference, but says he is unfit either to superintend or be subordinate.

Herbert Spencer’s review of J. M. Schleiden is interesting [see 4457].

CD has thrown away injured partridge’s foot.

Calculates the relationship between grains and milligrams; asks his mother for a fruit tart and twelve napkins.

Discusses microscopic observation of pollen tubes.

Unable to exchange orchids because of his illness.

CD apologises for having asked JDH to help him with Scott and now seeks advice on how to break the news.

CD need not worry about having discarded the partridge’s foot.

Men of Scott’s Celtic temperament are very troublesome. Tries to dissuade CD from hiring him as a scientific gardener.

George Rolleston, not Spencer, wrote review of Schleiden [Nat. Hist. Rev. (1864): 187–99].

Lyell thinks an expedition should be sent to the caves in Borneo, supported by the sale of surplus specimens; thinks "our progenitors" may well be there.

Regrets that JS has left the [Edinburgh] Botanic Garden and that [J. D.] Hooker is not in a position to secure a foreign appointment for him. Offers financial assistance on the grounds of science.

Has sent JS a copy of the Reader.

Thanks for Lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy [1864].

If Owen wrote article on "Oken" [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.] and French work on archetype he never did a baser act [see ML 1: 246 n.].

Bad health lately.