Reports that the ability to move ears is common among the Sioux.
Reports that the ability to move ears is common among the Sioux.
Notes criticising Max Müller’s views on language and Darwinism.
Sends extracts, from his forthcoming book [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)], about the secretion by plants of honey to attract the protection of ants. Invites CD’s comments.
Regrets he cannot receive JVC at Down on Monday as he would then be too unwell to travel on Tuesday, when he must leave for a visit [to Abinger Hall, according to the Journal].
Has been working hard on Drosera and Dionaea. His next book will be on these plants and not, as he had intended, "On evil effects of Inter breeding".
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.
Returned last night. Huxley, left at Baden Baden, remarkably well.
Would like to come to Down with Strachey.
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.
No summary available.
Discusses utility of plant secretions to ants.
Will read TB’s book when published [The naturalist in Nicaragua (1874)].
On inheritance of gesture.
Sends paper to be published in Sydney Mail on primitive man.
Sends lists of earth [castings] made by worms [see Earthworms, p. 127],
and a catalogue of Australian Lepidoptera.
JDH informs Asa Gray that he has returned from a trip to the Auvergne, Cantal, Mont Dore & Ardeche country taken with [Thomas Henry] Huxley, who is now at Baden Baden, Switzerland. Mentions professor Cresson[?] is working under Sir W. Thomson & has sent JDH Aster seeds. [Daniel] Oliver is in Jersey. [George] Bentham is working on Mimosaceae for FLORA BRAZILIENSIS. JDH shook off a minor attack of bronchitis whilst on tour in the Eifel with [John] Lubbock & [Mountstuart Elphinstone] Grant-Duff. Thanks Gray for his congratulations on JDH gaining the Presidency of the Royal Society though admits he feels 'oppressed' with the prospects. Mentions Gray getting [William Starling] Sullivant's collection of mosses, RBG Kew has received Hunt's mosses as a gift. JDH expresses low opinion of [William] Carruthers & his conduct in answer to a bill in chancery. Reports on the current whereabouts of his family: Frances, Brian & Reginald at Eastbourne, William with JDH at Kew & Harriet in Gloucestershire. JDH describes & highly compliments a botany course designed by Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer to be run at the school in South Kensington. Thanks Gray for putting a notice of [his wife France Hooker's English translation of] Decaisne & Le Maout's work [TRAITÉ GÉNÉRAL DE BOTANIQUE DESCRIPTIVE ET ANALYTIQUE] in Silliman's Journal [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE]. JDH cannot recall where he got notice of Sarracenia rubra, alias purpurea. [John Gilbert] Baker has sent all the notes of [Auguste Boniface] Ghiesbreght. JDH has sent Gray Ferns by 'young Ross'. JDH intends to make a cold fernery & asks Gray for roots. Comments on the release of further 'Survey Botanical Reports' & Sullivant's supplements. Notes that the South Kensington Museum is to be put under the British Museum trustees, a symptom of Gladstone's 'mad' government, under which he expects RBG Kew has had 'a lucky escape'.
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 THF to examine old flowers of Coronilla for holes bored by bees.
Is investigating whether drops of water injure leaves.
Encloses a copy of his paper on mimicry [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1873): 153–61].
Asks whether large variations are more often limited to one sex than slight ones.
Observations on effect of water on leaves.
Coronilla.
Further observations concerning the fertilisation of Coronilla by bees.
Reflections concerning the influence of cultivation (i.e., ploughing) upon variation.
Thanks MT for information on Drosera filiformis [see 8989].
Warns her against publishing statement about Drosera bending towards flies or meat that they have not touched.
Will send his book [Insectivorous plants] when published.
Answers CD’s questions of 25 July [8987] about temperatures at which cold-blooded animals are killed.
Doubts heat rigor was induced in Drosera. Gives his view of the relation of excitability to increase in temperature.
Suggests experiment to show that electrical changes in plant are the same as in animal muscle and nerve [see Insectivorous plants, p. 318].
Sends CD an excerpt from N. Y. Tribune [missing] about an account by W. D. Whitney, of Yale, of scientific work in Colorado.