Sends birthday greetings

and the good news of a subvention for the Zoological Station received from the German government. There are now 20 naturalists working at the Station.

It might be possible to borrow £500 [for potato experiments]. Variety of "The Champion" spreading over the Kingdom. Champion lately less able to produce.

At the inaugural meeting of the Epping Forest & Essex Naturalists’ Field Club, CD was elected an Honorary Member.

Has been at work on Orchideae for Genera plantarum and has found CD’s Orchids wonderfully useful. Comments on some problems of botanical terminology.

Asks CD’s help in obtaining data on finger-prints – both of ancient impressions in pottery and of living men of all races. Suggests a comparative study with similar markings of lemuroid monkeys might yield results of value about man’s origin. Gives the practical utility of prints in identification in criminal and legal studies and investigations. Encloses a form.

Agrees not to reply to Butler.

Asks CD to telegraph a testimonial for him.

On clubroot fungus of cultivated Cruciferae.

Will give Russian wheat varieties another trial.

On instinct in insects. Intends to experiment as CD proposes.

Thanks CD for his offer. Suggests it be used to start a fund to pay travel expenses of English naturalists who want to come to the Station.

Forwards, on behalf of the Birmingham Philosophical Society, an address offering CD the first honorary membership of the Society. Encloses formal record of this meeting.

Plants in Venezuelan plains.

Observations on Turnera: heterostyly, leaf-base glands’ secretion eaten by ants.

Observations on role of leaf secretions in fertilisation of Marcgravia and Passiflora.

Thanks for CD’s appreciation of his work on family history. Sends one of his books [unidentified].

Three hundred copies of Erasmus Darwin remain from the 1000 printed. Demand is small.

Should 250 copies of Forms of flowers be printed before type is distributed?

Thanks CD for his cheque for £100. Has told Secretary of BAAS Committee [for the Station], so that he may report it. [See O. J. R. Howarth, The British Association (1931), pp. 196–7.]

Potatoes will be lost unless JT has immediate authority to proceed.

Writes on family matters and researches.

Mentions construction of a pendulum

and completion of a paper he will send to the Royal Society.

Wonders whether Lord Derby would advance him the money to continue his work.

Is prepared to continue his work, if financial help is forthcoming.

Has sent off paper to the Royal Society

and begun work on a new problem which he feels contains the meaning of Bode’s Law, concerning the mean distances of the planets from the sun. There are mathematical difficulties, however, which he may be unable to surmount.

Will get to work on the pendulum next week.