Responds to CD’s letter. The ova of Salmonidae exposed to air, if kept moist, will stay alive up to 72 hours.
The only mainland vegetation he saw on Falkland Island shores were trees. Remembers no strange birds there, but on journey home saw a woodcock more than 500 miles from the nearest land.
Provides another case of apparently pure bred pointers producing litter with one setter puppy. Correspondent was told that this occurred in several litters; gives names of owners and others who can corroborate the information.
Comments on possibility of transport of seeds of Arctic plants by ice.
CD has suggested an explanation of how pike were introduced to a remote lake in Ireland by cormorants [carrying pike spawn on their feet or in their gullets].
Hybrid insects.
Description of the Salvages.
Variability of "transition groups" of insects; relation of variability to ranges of insects. The variability of wings, even within species. Reduction of flying ability on isolated islands.
Forbes’s "Atlantis" theory and insect fauna of the Atlantic islands, considered with regard to insect migrations.
Gives instances of sexual differences in the number of tarsi within species of Coleoptera and also variation in the number of tarsi between related species.
CD’s tabulation of colonists curious but explicable.
Working on Tasmanian flora; contemplating general essay on Australian distribution: Tasmania and Australia same alpine species; Swan River flora very peculiar and quite distinct from New South Wales.
Trying to establish new journal at Linnean.
Comparison of skulls of Ichthyosaurus and Cetacea.
JDH criticises C. J. F. Bunbury’s paper on Madeira [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 1 (1857): 1–35].
Absence of Ophrys on Madeira suggests to JDH a sequence in creation of groups.
Why are flightless insects common in desert?
Australian endemism.
On the ova of the salmon in relation to the distribution of species.
Responds to CD’s questions about mountain vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope. The distribution of some plants provides problems for both migration and special creation hypotheses.
Indigenous domestic animals of the New World.
Relationship of Newfoundland and Esquimo dogs to the wolf. Dogs like the Esquimo occur in Tibet and Siberia. Indian pariah dogs and jackals occasionally interbreed.
Describes domestic cats of India; reports cases of their interbreeding with wild cats. Wild cats are tamed for hunting.
Races of silkworm in India are crossed [see 1690].
Domesticated plants, fish, and birds of India.
Comments on local races and species of crows; it is impossible to trace a line of demarcation between races and species.
Variation in the ability of hybrids to propagate.
Indian cattle breeds; differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus.
Is not satisfied that aboriginally wild species of horse and ass exist.
Believes all fancy breeds of pigeon originated in the East. Wild ancestors of pigeons, ducks, geese, and fowls. Interbreeding of wild species of pheasant.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
Has filled up CD’s paper [see 1674].
Distribution and relationships of alpine flora in U. S.
Reports that he sees the oxlip, cowslip, and primrose as really distinct species; hybrids are formed between any two.
Finds Forbes’s continental theories, migration, and double creation are all unsatisfactory explanations of geographical distribution of plants.
Is currently working on problems of sea transport of plant species.
European plants on Australian Alps only explicable by double creations.
Discusses hybrid plants he has raised, particularly hybrids between Geum urbanum and G. rivale, which are very fertile and exhibit great variability. [See Natural selection, p. 102.]
Red and white campions: JSH regards them as races, not species; a flesh-coloured intermediate exists.
Sends a list of "close" species from his Manual of botany.
Hopes Hooker or CD will write an essay on species. Discusses some of the difficulties of defining botanical species.
