Cannot come to Down on weekend because of teaching duties.

Asks to visit Down on Saturday.

Mrs Hooker will not come with him to Down on Saturday.

Describes plans for new German edition of Origin [1867].

Thanks for the paper on Sterrha (McLachlan 1865).

Oswald Heer [in Die Urwelt der Schweiz (1866)] agrees with CD that Swiss ants (Formica sanguinea) capture more slaves than do British ants. Does this contradict selection, since the British ants are exposed to harder conditions and a poorer fauna?

Writes on slave-making ants; cannot explain why fewer slaves are caught in England than in Switzerland.

Sends CD comb of the Chinese honey-bee, as requested.

Asks [Secretary] to list the proper titles of foreign societies of which he is an honorary member; he has mislaid diplomas.

Calls for more study of behaviour and less of classification to determine whether descent theory can bear the weight not [only] of reasoning but of fact. Hopes CD’s intended book [Variation] will help.

Local matters.

In response to a letter from RS’s father [translation enclosed] Schweizerbart has suggested H. B. Geinitz revise Bronn’s edition of the Origin, but RS doubts he is suitable.

Cannot support another edition of Origin, so unable to send English pages. Suggests some of his other works that might be worth translating into German.

Extensive discussion of Pangenesis in reply to JDH’s comments.

Reports of a tooth found in the testicle of a horse.

Hares are very fleet in countries in which greyhound coursing is developed, slow in those in which no greyhounds are kept.

Queries for John Smith [Kew curator] on crossing a cucumber variety.

Reference to description of Begonia phyllomaniaca.

Thanks for the explicit account of Pangenesis. Thinks he now follows CD’s ideas but Pangenesis is very difficult and speculative.

Oliver has lost his little girl.

Sends copies of Science gossip and The leisure hour.

Enjoyed visit.

His criticism of Primula fertility referred to table 2 [Collected papers 2: 56] where weight of seeds produced from good pods by long-styled homostylous cross and short-styled heterostylous cross are virtually identical.

Pleased CD does not consider review of his works prejudiced [Anon., "Darwin and his teachings", Q. J. Sci. 3 (1866): 151–76].

Supports gradual development of species over time.

Confused by the metaphysical view implied in the analogy between a creative power that has made new species and artificial selection governed by human reason (Origin, 3d ed., p. 492).

Doubts natural selection.

Cites his discussion of the origin of Infusoria [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 14 (1865): 546–7].

Invites CD to dine and meet Alphonse de Candolle.