CD declines to write for RLT’s new journal. He is not fitted for the work and dislikes it particularly. It costs loss of time as he "cannot change with ease from one job to another".

Memorandum on Silchester. Report by IGJ of investigations carried out at Silchester with Frank and Horace [Darwin] on earthworm activity at the site of a Roman villa. Sections of vertical cuttings at Silchester, traced from the journal of the excavations of the Roman house, and notes on the same.

Having a splendid time at awarding of LL.D.

Thanks for bananas.

Nomenclature for kinds of heliotropism.

Deeply grateful for THH’s tribute to him at conferring of LL.D. at Cambridge.

Gives exceptions to maize being monoecious, as CD claims in Cross and self-fertilisation; reversion may be cause of hermaphrodite flowers observed.

Sends paper on potatoes and asks CD to republish.

Thinks EH’s translation of Cross and self-fertilisation [1877] is excellent.

Would like him to do Forms of flowers, but Reinwald is afraid to have it translated in the present political state of France.

A poem in tribute to CD following the award of his Cambridge LL.D.

Asks GHD to determine whether there are worm-castings in cloisters of [Neville?] Court.

Enjoyed his visit to Cambridge. Asks for newspaper account of the LL.D.

He said nothing in his tribute to CD that was not strictly accurate. Has written out a version as well as he can recollect it and will send CD a copy.

Sends letter from Fritz Müller [11191] containing observations on plants and insects of South Brazil, with prefatory comments.

Will look for worm-castings in the cloisters,

and will send CD items from the Cambridge papers on the honorary degree.

Has hit on a possible fallacy in W. Thomson’s theory of secular cooling of the earth.

Sends plant specimens of a hybrid he has raised by crossing two species of Rubus. Describes procedure by which he obtained them. Cites his paper on hybridisation.

Two thousand more copies of Origin to be printed. Has CD any corrections to make?

Type for Cross and self-fertilisation, Orchids, and Forms of flowers must now be broken up. If CD does not object, Murray will have stereotypes made of the three works. Asks for any corrections CD may want embodied.

Asks CD if he would like to sign GHD’s Royal Society proposal for membership.

Honoured to be elected an honorary member of the Société Géologique de Belgique.

Asks exact number of copies of recent printing of Origin.

Approves stereotyping Orchids,

but fears he cannot approve of stereotyping Cross and self-fertilisation and Forms of flowers. It is too soon for the latter, and he is too busy to correct the former.

Thinks he had better not sign GHD’s paper [as a candidate for F.R.S.], since he obviously is no judge of the quality of his work.

Asks if Thomson did not overlook heat generated by the crushing and folding of strata during the refrigeration of the globe.

No summary available.

SB’s book [Life and habit (1878)] will be bound shortly. He will send two copies, one of which can be given to CD. To SB’s surprise it has turned out to be an attack on CD’s views and a defence of Lamarck; describes how he was brought to the opinions expressed in it.