Testimonial for a position as a librarian. Recipient is the author of a great monograph on the Picidae [woodpeckers].

Pleased to hear through Miss Pennington that CEB-S intends to review Origin in a French journal. Suggests 3d ed. as this will soon appear in French translation. Does not expect perfect agreement on so complex a subject as descent.

Quiz arrived safely.

CD’s three sons are in bed with bad colds.

Obliged for the Theophrastus. Will return it.

Asks how much he owes for his annual subscription to the Society.

Has been in bad health and has just read HWB’s MS in the last two days. Praises the book; assured it will be successful. Offers to write to Murray. Hooker interested in conclusions on colour.

On success of THH’s Edinburgh lectures.

Agrees that THH is right that the hybrid question is a "hiatus" [in the argument for natural selection] but he overrates it. Crossed varieties frequently produce sterile offspring. On this question asks THH to read his Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63]. CD suspects sterility will come to be viewed as a selected character.

Lord Tankerville has not responded to the request for the skulls which LR requires for his research. CD addressed Lord T through his friend Sir Henry Holland, who is prepared to try again, despite Lord T’s rudeness.

Entire family down with influenza. Has done nothing for three weeks.

Asks for Haast reference on New Zealand glacial deposits.

CD’s view of the North since Trent case. Can no longer write with sympathy to Asa Gray.

Encourages JDH about his son, Willy.

Problem of relation of colour to external conditions. Hopes JDH will undertake the investigation.

Discusses Stellaria and other plants said to be dimorphic.

Asks for plants he wants for experiments.

Preparing a little book on Orchids.

Dimorphism: "new cases are tumbling in almost daily".

U. S. politics.

Much amused at the Witness.

Pleased at what THH says on hybridity.

Odd that objectors never allude to the arguments that alone have weight in their favour – affinities, rudimentary organs, etc.

Has 16 ill in the house!

Natural History Review a capital number.

Thanks for orchids and other flowers.

Will send photograph.

Has had 16 in the household ill.

Wants to meet JL.

Praises JL’s paper ["Ancient lake-habitations of Switzerland", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 2 (1862): 26–51].

CD has sent to printer proofs of his contribution to Memoir of Henslow.

His answer to Asa Gray.

On JDH’s view of aristocracy. Primogeniture is dreadfully opposed to selection.

Orchid book proofs ready soon – has no idea whether it is worth publishing.

Huxley on Owen.

Feeble letter from J. H. Balfour against Huxley’s lectures ["Relation of man to lower animals", pt 2 of Man’s place in nature (1863)].

Has received the "astounding" Angraecum sesquipedale with nectary 1ft long: "what insect could suck it?"

Discusses deduction from bill for medicine.

H. W. Bates is, at CD’s urging, writing a book of travel and natural history. CD suggests JM might be interested in publishing it. Recommends HWB and his MS highly.

Is JDH sure it is a Bletia, just received? Its pollen very different from any Epidendreæ he has seen. If it is Bletia, Lindley’s grand divisions are fanciful.

Accepts JDH’s offer to collect cases of dimorphism.

James Bateman has sent a lot of orchids with Angraecum sesquipedale. What a proboscis the moth that sucks its 11½ inch nectary must have!

Encloses note from Murray, hoping it will be satisfactory. Murray is ready to see as much of MS as possible. Murray is considered honest but may be cautious, since HWB’s name is unknown to the public.