"It is a fearfully difficult moral problem about speaking out on religion, & I have never been able to make up my mind."
An Irishman, a "grand breeder" of short-horns, declared at lunch that CD’s books had been "a great help to [him] in breeding!"
No summary available.
Suggests experiments to try [with Nepenthes].
Asks JDH to test whether cabbage seeds and peas exposed to the ferment germinate.
Cancel: same as 9523.
Has read letters and MS with great interest.
No ill effects from JD’s visit.
Describes his experiments on Nepenthes; finds action analogous to that in Drosera.
Observations on the leaves of Desmodium. Most are trifoliate; none has tendrils. Gives some comments from Hooker.
Extremely glad to hear of the aggregation in Nepenthes glands. Advises on experimenting with cubes of albumen – gives sizes, also suggests cubes of roast meat. Thanks for analyses of secretion of Nepenthes.
Asks for cutting of Acacia farnesiana.
Longs to examine a species of Desmodium with three leaflets. Has asked Frank [Darwin] to look for species of Desmodium with tendrils.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Thanks for AOK’s work on the larvae of the Ascidians.
Sends plant specimens.
He and Thiselton-Dyer, working on with Nepenthes, have independently found the spiral vessels going to the gland. CD’s view that the glands are secretory organs is suggestive. When Nepenthes is as much done as CD wants,
he will turn to Cephalotus and Sarracenia.
Has visited Alford and Beesby.
Thanks for leaves. His notes on them will be of greatest service.
He cannot distinguish some Eucalypti from Acacia. Sends specimens, with numbers, for JDH to name.
Acacia farnesiana branches arrived withered, but saw enough to make him wish to examine the plant.
Has thought of some troublesome experiments for Drosophyllum.
Encloses remarks [missing] by Searles Wood, with which CD disagrees, about a new and strongly marked variety transmitting its characters.
The competition of better adapted forms seems to CD a sufficient explanation [for extinction].
Would like much to visit CD before returning to America;
is completing his work on evolution [Outlines of cosmic philosophy (1874)] for publication. Hopes to do away with the anthropomorphic distinction made between "divine action" and the "action of natural forces".
On Nepenthes.
Asks JDH, if he publishes, to mention CD’s work on digestive powers of Drosera so that charges of plagiarism will not be made against CD later when he publishes.
Describes at length his observations on the movements of Desmodium.
Discusses adaptations in flowers and their heritability.
Mentions advertisements for HS’s book [? Study of sociology (1873)].
Thought HS would have profited by principle that a character appearing late in life is inherited at same age.