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

Obliged for the Theophrastus. Will return it.

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

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.

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].

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?"

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!

Thanks for seeds.

Returns a letter, which, when it is published, he believes will make readers take up THH’s lectures in a more impartial spirit.

Thanks JDH for box of melastomes

and a very valuable reference from Daniel Oliver.

Is crossing Monochaetum which he thinks is dimorphic.

Is "sometimes half tempted to give up species & stick to experiments".

Pollen of Bletia hyacinthina is quite unlike other Bletia species but exactly the same as Epipactis.

Acknowledges receipt of a diploma for Doctor’s degree from the University of Breslau and expresses his thanks.

Discusses WED’s growing interest in botany; would be grateful for certain observations.

Is much concerned about Horace’s illness.

Has sent Orchids MS to printers

and will work a little at dimorphism.

Asks for the address of C. W. Crocker.

Would like to hear ACR’s new views on origin of mountain lakes, but cannot stand the hot, late meetings [at Geological Society].

Admires JDH’s paper on Arctic plants ["Distribution of Arctic plants", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 251–348]. Such papers compel people to reflect on modification of species;

JDH will be driven to a cooled globe.

Serious erratum in paper.

New and original evidence in case of Greenland. Its flora requires accidental means of transport by ice and currents.

Obliged for MTM’s ["Vegetable morphology", Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 29 (1862): 202–18].

[List of plants in CD’s hand, with notes by JDH identifying them.]

CD wishes he could sympathise with Asa Gray’s politics.

Orchids to appear soon.

Pre-glacial Arctic distribution.

Work on floral dimorphism.

High opinion of Buckle as a writer.

Pleased that new German edition of Origin is wanted. Wishes to make corrections.

Suggests German translation of Orchids.

Comments on HGB’s book [Untersuchungen (1858)].