JDH informs Asa Gray that he is writing to Waldo Ross to thank him for a barrel of apples. JDH has received Gray's letter of 6 Dec [1875] & thanks him for a second copy of AESTIVATION AND TERMINOLOGY. JDH agrees with Gray regarding the importance of keeping [herbarium] material out of bad hands. He praises Decaisne's Pirus essay & Gray's notes in it, but notes that [Henri Ernest] Baillon has inserted a mistake into Decaisne's work; regarding the position of ovules. JDH dismisses Baillon's HISTOIRE [DES PLANTES] & calls his work on Phytolacceae a poor rehash of a bad work by Moquin-Tandon. JDH is puzzled what to do with Stegnosperma. He & George Bentham[GB] have decided to keep up Paronychieae [in GENERA PLANTARUM] & put Limeum & Gisekia [Gisechia] into Mollugineae. JDH has done Nyotaginea & had a dreadful task with Mirabilis Oxybaphus & co. But with GB's agreement kept Mirabilis for the big flowers & Oxybaphus for the small as a poor compromise. He offers to send Gray the glossary. He thinks Gray's varieties of O. cervantesii are both good distinct species. JDH is now working on Paronychieae & GB on Labiatae. Acanthaceae is being printed, to be followed by Verbenaceae. In response to Gray's entreaty JDH states he cannot visit him in the USA as he has 6 children to deal with. Hardy will go to New York in July & JDH would like to visit Gray at that time. Parish lives up to expectations. Diggs has given another grant to print the CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS for 1863-73. GB has recovered from a cold. Munro has settled near Taunton. [Thomas] Thomson has been very ill, he lives near Maidstone. [Charles Robert] Darwin is well, for him.

Reports on the tendency of the normally fruitless Convolvulus arvensis, to form fruit when roots are cut and plant is in danger of dying.

Thanks EH for Arabische Korallen [1876].

No summary available.

Reports an observation on his child’s behaviour;

claims to have captured two moths of different species in the act of copulating with each other.

Proposes an unorthodox theory of generation that explains sex determination and atavism.

Thanks WED for his letter of 20 December 1875. Is surprised and delighted by the support from WED and CD for the Index.

EH’s Arabische Korallen is spirited, clear, and poetical. With respect to formation of islands, thinks EH lays too much stress on views of Ehrenberg. Admires drawings.

He is surveying the literature on the struggle for existence among pasture plants. Asks CD for the "many cases on record" of changed relations among plants under slightly changed conditions alluded to in the Origin. [See M. T. Masters, J. B. Lawes and J. M. Gilbert "Agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of experiments on the mixed herbage of permanent meadow, conducted for more than twenty years in succession on the same land (pt 2, The botanical results)", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 173 (1883): 1181–413.]

Thanks for KHvS’s book [La province de Smyrne (1873)].

Discusses possible meeting.

Are plants that arise from vegetative propagation individuals or merely parts of the original parent plant?

In response to CD’s query, answers that he has frequently heard discussions at the Horticultural Society of a saccharine secretion from leaves of the lime and has no doubt it really does occur. [See Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 402.]

Obliged for Belfast Journal.

Almost impossible to determine what constitutes an individual. Definition for sexually reproducing organisms does not apply to lower ones.

Agrees to aid HA in applying for membership in a society.

Thanks for reviews of Insectivorous plants and of Climbing plants in Nation and American Journal Science [see 10329].

AG’s essay on seed dispersal ["Burs in the borage family", Am. Nat. 10 (1876): 1–4].

Preparing book on advantages of crossing [Cross and self-fertilisation].

Asks CD to come up to vote for Lankester.

Severely critical of R. L. Tait’s paper on Nepenthes communicated to the Royal Society.

Thanks for SL’s [Études sur les echinoïdées (1875)]. Nothing could be more difficult than the homologies of this group.

Purchases cigarettes for CD.

Promises to vote for Lankester.

Acknowledges faults of R. L. Tait’s paper.

Thanks CD for comments on Arabische Korallen [1876].

Comments on Monoenia darwinii [?] as a primitive sponge.

Discusses criticisms of CD’s theory by K. E. von Baer ["Über Darwin’s Lehre", in Reden 2 (1876): 235–480].