Encloses copy of JS's letter to the Times in response to JH's recently published objections to currency system in India. Wishes to meet JH and discuss issue in private, then publish joint statement on subject.

Since March has been living in Heidelberg, where his wife is studying mathematics and physics.

The Russian translation of Variation has been printed in his absence; he will bring a copy to Down if he receives one from Russia.

Thanks EB for his attempts to find out about the mandrills;

sorry to hear that he has been so badly treated by the manager of Land and Water.

Read JH's letter in the Times with great pleasure. Would like to see the gold question remain as at present. Has not been successful with the Wellingtonia seed; none has come up. Regrets to hear the change in the weather has brought on JH's bronchitis.

On stridulation of Coleoptera, Trox sabulosus, Mutilla. [See Descent 1: 380.]

Is grateful for his letter. Is also pleased that the proportions between groups of planets and satellites merits his attention. Hopes to forward some tables on sunspots.

Thanks SHS for papers he has sent.

JH having declined offer from Clarendon Press to write a treatise on inductive logic, [Thomas] Fowler of Oxford, who had earlier written a book on deductive logic, drafted an inductive logic, relying heavily of JH's Prelim. Discourse and Familiar Lectures. Asks JH to make suggestions on the manuscript.

Thanks for CD’s ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56].

Although Thomas Meehan’s paper ["Variations in Epigaea repens", Proc. Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. (1868): 153–6] shows great variability in this genus, JTM sees a need to qualify the generalisation that there is as much variation in the wild as under domestication. He knows no evidence for a constant proportion between variability in the wild and under cultivation.

Observations on correlation between leaf size and exposure to sun and shade.

Has evidence for two varieties of Ophrys apifera in England, which live in mutually exclusive colonies.

Sees no likelihood that private meeting would resolve issue between JH and JS. JS misunderstood JH's argument on valuation of British coins and currency. Encloses JS's note to Editor of the Times.

Will come to Down on 25 Sept.

Thanks CD for supplementaries ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56] which he will quote in the British flora [The student’s flora of the British Islands (1870)].

F. A. W. Miquel could not come.

Asks CD’s opinion of a paper he has written on papilionaceous flowers.

Asks JDH to consult colleagues learned in physiology for answer to query: when a large piece of bark is removed from a tree, does the bark ever regrow in isolated points [separate] from the growing margin of the surrounding bark? Query bears on Pangenesis and on power of repair in plants.

Leaflet variation at the tip of Lathyrus stems.

JM is about to start a new monthly literary review [the Academy]. Would like to publish in first number a short notice of the new work upon which CD is engaged [Descent].

Regrets he has no spare copies of a paper Felder has asked for, but will send him his "Notes on Eastern butterflies".

Wishes JM’s new periodical [the Academy] could have been a weekly so it might kill the Athenæum by a lingering death.

Has drafted a piece [about Descent] but is not pleased with it.

No summary available.

Suggests the planet Mercury may be a good subject for his spectroscopic experiments. Gives comments and explanations on his proposals. May like to communicate the results to the R.A.S.

Sends a list of queries for AG.

Asks whether AG can supply specimens for illustrations [for Descent]. Hopes Mr Ford will do the drawings.