Circular letter regarding the distribution of CD’s excess income, with a note addressed to W. E. Darwin concerning his handling of Elizabeth Darwin’s share.

Send CD a present of a fur coat.

Thanks his children for their present of a fur coat.

Enjoyed his visit to Down.

Hopes CD got telegram about Convolvulus. Is measuring plants every four hours. Will go to Brittany by boat from Southampton on Monday night.

Thanks FD for criticisms [of Movement in plants]. J. D. Hooker was interested in the observations of movement in Desmodium.

Are there old furrowed fields on hillsides in N. Wales, if so can FD look for earthworm activity?

Thanks for letter and journals. Sends information on earthworms and also information from Mr Ruck. Describes his fishing and his success finding sea shore plants that are new to him.

Discusses corrections [to Movement in plants]. Has dispatched chapter nine.

Dispatches a chapter [of Movement in plants] for FD to look over.

Sorry he forgot the gardener’s address. Having a very nice time in Cambridge, and is almost finished the bramble paper. Drawing room is upside down, so living in Horace’s working room and dining room. Greek question was lost in the Senate House. George dined there last night. Too muddy to bicycle. Has some stuff for spectacles.

Indications on the movement of flowers.

It is not customary to recommend someone for membership of the Royal Society.

Thanks for information about the property in question [Tromer Lodge, see 12842]. His father, Robert Ainslie, had protested a settlement made in an earlier transaction.

Will stay until London until after the Linnean Society meeting unless CD wants anything. Asks to send abstracts of papers. Has made short abstracts of papers for Nature.

FD’s abstract ["Physiology of plants", Nature 23 (1880): 178–81] is excellent, and as clear as daylight.

The Duke of Argyll has written to Gladstone in support of a pension for A. R. Wallace.

About the distribution of [surplus income] funds among the children.

FD and CD have been interested in AdeC’s diagram for illustrating inheritance. The difficulty of estimating different qualities in oneself and others is very great. Encloses a diagram illustrating how FD compares himself with his parents. CD has filled in a comparison with his father. It shows he resembles his father more than FD resembles CD. [The qualities compared are: stature, hair, eyes, pulse, musical capacity, ability to draw, tendency toward biological sciences, tendency toward mathematical sciences, perseverence, memory, aptitude for foreign languages.]

CD thanks him for his congratulations and for details of letters, which he will keep with the Butlerian documents.

FD is happy for his lecture to be republished in Kosmos.

Copies of FD’s paper have arrived ["The theory of growth", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 18 (1881): 406–19]. Does he want them dispatched?