No summary available.

Is obliged for TE’s paper on the wall lizard and another paper.

Sends subscription for Hannah Fitch.

Accepts GJR’s offer to prepare sugar-cane paper for publication [Villa Franca and Glass, "New varieties of sugar-cane", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1880–2): 30–1]. Suggests introduction and outline.

Agrees with GJR on microscope for Grant Allen.

No summary available.

Thanks CD for financial assistance for Mr Fitch and his wife.

Has read Earthworms; discusses parts and encloses a list of errata. Writes of worm-castings, describing his observations; speculates on the variation in their distribution under different conditions.

Advises his children as to how some money will be distributed among them.

Praises G. H. Darwin’s letter ["On the geological importance of the tides", Nature 25 (1882): 213–14] which criticises the use made of George Darwin’s views by Robert Ball ["A glimpse through the corridors of time", Nature 25 (1881): 79–82, 103–7]. JWJ argues from the fineness of Cambrian sediments against Ball’s intensification of geological forces. Massive Carboniferous river deltas also contradict Ball’s excessively high tides.

CD’s division of his surplus income; fire engines; Sara Darwin’s relatives; GHD’s paper in Nature.

Thanks CD for Earthworms.

Discusses the problem of accounting for difference between nitrogen in permanent grassland and ordinary arable soil. Finds castings of earthworms rich in nitrogen. Asks CD if his observations enable him to explain the source. If from below top-soil, it would be a considerable manuring.

Sends his paper on the comparative anatomy of the assimilatory tissue systems of plants [Jahrb. Wiss. Bot. 13 (1882): 74–188]. This work has made clear to him how CD’s principles produce rich results when applied to plant anatomy.

Also sends a paper on the difficult problem of the gulf between cryptogamic and phanerogamic plants in the evolutionary development, in order to present another proof of the continuity of the phylogenetic development of the plant kingdom.

Thinks that "women though generally superior to men [in] moral qualities are inferior intellectually". Believes that men and women may have been aboriginally equal in this respect but that to regain equality women would have to "become as regular ""bread-winners"" as are men". Suspects the education of children and "the happiness of our homes" would greatly suffer in that case.

No summary available.

No summary available.

Requests that THF forward an enclosure if he thinks it proper. James Torbitt’s blunder in using the pollen of a diseased variety accounts for the bad varieties raised last year.

CD’s gardener reports that potatoes were not attacked by disease, but yield was not good. Noble of JT to plan the return of subscriptions if trade continues to improve.

Thanks FJC for presentation copy [of Die Pflanze (1882)].

Wishes to borrow Weismann’s pamphlet on the Daphnidae [ "Ueber die Schmuckfarben der Daphnoiden", Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie 30 (Supp.)]. Is preparing an essay on "alternation of generations".

No summary available.