Returns CD’s lists [sent with 2184]. Confusion in genera of Silene is great in continental botanic gardens. One would have to know whether C. F. v. Gärtner had the right names for species in his experiments.

Thanks GB for his answers [to 2184], which were as explicit as he expected. Cucubalus viscosus and italicus are extremely sterile together; all other forms extremely fertile. Other instances of infertility found by Gärtner.

At Hooker’s request, sends his copy of Gärtner [Bastarderzeugung (1849)], "shamefully scribbled over".

Asks for specimen of Orchis pyramidalis for his work on insect fertilisation of orchids.

Thanks GB for specimen [of Orchis pyramidalis].

Discusses a great difficulty with orchids: "Insects visit several species which never secrete an atom of honey." [See Orchids, p. 44ff.] Does GB know whether nectar is ever secreted and reabsorbed promptly?

Thanks GB for arranging for his paper ["Two forms of Primula", Collected papers 2: 45–63] and for his photograph.

Requests more precise details about Oxalis, to which GB referred in his remarks on Primula.

Would prefer to have Primula paper published in the Linnean Society’s Journal rather than Transactions.

Remarks about Labiatae, Linum, Oxalis and Viola occasioned by hearing CD’s paper ["Two forms of Primula", read 21 Nov 1861, Collected papers 2: 45–63].

Lists pairs of Oxalis species with differing proportions of stamens and styles.

Thanks GB for valuable letter [3331].

Will follow his suggestion about violets.

Discusses differences between Thymus and Primula.

Asks GB’s help to clear up discrepancies between his and John Lindley’s observations on pollination of Melastomataceae.

Will try to come to Linnean Society to read his paper, but has been "extra headachy". Fears his paper ["Sexual forms of Catasetum", Collected papers 2: 63–70] will not be worth Lindley’s attendance.

Thanks CD for his book [Orchids]. CD has opened a new field for observation and a new unexpected track to explore phenomena that had before appeared "irreconcilable with ordinary opinion and method shown in the organic world".

Asks for reference to GB’s summary of Targioni-Tozzetti’s book ["Historical notes on the introduction of various plants into the agriculture and horticulture of Tuscany: a summary of a work entitled Cenni storici sulla introduzione di varie piante nell agricultura ed orticultura Toscana by Dr Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti, Florence, 1850", J. Hortic. Soc. Lond. 9 (1855): 133–81]. [See Variation, 1st ed., 1: 306 n.]

Sends CD the reference for GB’s summary of Targioni-Tozzetti’s work [see 3760].

Hopes for a communication to the Linnean Society from CD "this winter".

CD’s paper [on Linum] is announced for reading at the Linnean Society on 5 February.

Asks CD whether he knows of "anything worth looking at" that has appeared abroad on his theory of the origin of species.

Sends GB a selection of reviews of the Origin from his collection of about 90, with his opinion of some of them.

Has not yet read the pamphlets [selection of reviews of Origin, sent by CD at GB’s request]. Though GB does not go so far as Hooker in accepting all of CD’s hypotheses and does not feel up to a thorough discussion of his views, he hopes in his Linnean Anniversary Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix] to speak on the present state of the [species] question.