Thinks highly of GHD’s article [probably "On beneficial restrictions to liberty of marriage", Contemp. Rev. 22 (1873): 412–26]. A good omen for the future.

Starts tomorrow for visit to Farrer and Effie [Euphemia Farrer, daughter of Hensleigh Wedgwood]. Has not done such a feat [i.e., staying as a guest of someone outside the immediate family?] for 25 years.

Has been half killing himself with Drosera.

Discusses utility of plant secretions to ants.

Will read TB’s book when published [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)].

Thanks [FC] for his letter concerning a pony changing colour during the winter,

and remarks on the erection of human body hair, goose-skin, and the influence of colour and temperature on skin.

Asks JDH why so many plants are protected by a thin layer of waxy matter or with fine hairs.

Wrote to John Smith for a plant of Oxalis sensitiva, but it has not acted well.

Rejoices over Ayrton’s retirement. Hopes W. P. Adam, his successor, is a good sort of man.

Observations on bees’ biting holes in Lathyrus.

Suggests an experiment FD could carry out with Drosera.

CD is working on Mimosa, and "everything has turned out as perversely as possible".

Pollination and floral structure of Lathyrus. Asks where bees bite through the flowers.

Asks JDH to inquire of gardeners at Kew what they think about injury to plants from watering during sunshine. Wishes to experiment. He is already convinced that drops of water do not act as burning lenses.

Comments on experiments of touching seeds with acid.

Asks FD to bring any book that gives the affinities of the various earths, alkalis and metals.

Thanks JC-B for volume of Asylum reports and paper on epilepsy. Seems clear from reports that physiology of brain will soon be largely understood.

Requests chemicals for Drosera experiments. Lists 12 acids tried so far.

Thanks JDH and Thiselton-Dyer for useful information.

Is surprised Mimosa albida is not sensitive to water. Asks that they try again, or lend it to him.

Remembers a walk in Brazil in great bed of Mimosa.

After JDH left, CD was very bad, with much loss of memory and severe shocks continually passing through his brain.

Obliged for information on Mimosa albida; if a vigorous plant behaves as JDH says, CD’s notions are all knocked on the head.

Anxious to read Tyndall’s answer to Tait [Nature 8 (1873): 399].

Drosera story too long for his strength. Essentially the leaves act just like stomach of an animal.

Burdon Sanderson will give some grand facts at BAAS about Dionaea.

Offers to help JDH with Nepenthes experiments. Finds experimental work always takes twice as much time as anticipated.

Consults about the wisdom of Frank’s becoming CD’s assistant rather than practising medicine.

Outlines his finances.

[Copy in EAD’s hand.]

Requests 6 2oz bottles with corks. Folic acid produces remarkable effect. Orders hydriodic acid.

Had read Tyndall’s letter [Nature 8 (1873): 399] – awfully savage, but certainly a great mistake to print it.

Thinks JDH will think better of Clerk Maxwell’s paper after he reads it.

Asks whether JDH could find out for him the temperature of rain in very hot countries.

Has heard that Mr Allen wishes to let his house and thinks it probable that it would suit his son [Francis]. Asks whether he may have refusal of it.

CD thinks GHD’s letter is an excellent clarification [of CD’s conjectural view on the elimination of useless parts in species], but does not want to publish it as his [CD’s] own. Asks GHD to think carefully before he publishes it.

Thanks AB for his review of Expression [May 1873, in The senses and the intellect, 3d ed. (1874), pp. 697–714]. Admits vagueness of some points. Has never grasped AB’s principle of spontaneity. But, as they look at everything so differently, it is not likely that they should agree closely.

A recent review by T. S. Baynes, [Edinburgh Rev. 137 (1873): 492–528] is "magnificently contemptuous" toward CD and many others.