Mustering support at Royal Society Council for John Lindley’s Copley Medal. CD thinks Albany Hancock deserves a Royal Medal.
Lyell urges CD to publish a sketch of species theory; CD asks JDH’s opinion on best course.
Concerned about opposition, particularly by Owen, to Huxley’s admission to Athenaeum.
CD is unsure about JDH’s recommendation that he publish a separate "Preliminary Essay". It is unphilosophical to publish without full details.
CD will work for Huxley’s admission to Athenaeum.
Huxley’s "vehement" [Royal Institution?] Lectures make it difficult to propose him for Athenaeum.
CD (and Emma) had a good laugh over JDH’s mortified response to a misinterpretation (in print) concerning his position on multiple creation.
Comments on Huxley–Falconer dispute [see "On the method of palaeontology", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 18 (1856): 43–54].
Wollaston’s On the variation of species [1856].
Has exploded to Lyell against the extension of continents.
Plants common to Europe and NW. America as result of temperate climate.
CD sends reference for "Laburnum case", with comment on his own credulity.
Wants to quote JDH on plants endemic to NW. America.
CD cannot swallow continental extensions. Has written to Lyell giving a lengthy criticism of the concept [see 1910] and has asked Lyell to forward the letter to JDH.
Perhaps Aristolochia and Viscum are protandrous.
Troubled by JDH’s connection between Antarctic island flora and Fuegia, which CD sees as part of a general relation to southern circumpolar flora. Encloses list [not found] of plants from Tristan d’Acunha.
CD writing species sketch; must cite cases favouring multiple creations.
Requests details on species JDH listed as common to Chile and New Zealand. Notes their genera are mundane.
Has found no case of Huxley’s eternal hermaphrodites.
Cruelty and waste in nature.
CD does not believe in hybrids.
One proven case of multiple creations would smash CD’s theory.
Asks JDH to read MS on alpine and Arctic distribution.
Lyell’s "conversion" to mutability.
Multiple creations.
Necessity for crossing in plants and animals: JDH to take up the subject; explains separate sexes in trees.
Continental extensions.
Tristan da Cunha flora.
Aquatic plants.
Density and diversity of plants in small plots in Kent, Keeling Islands, and Himalayas.
CD’s predicament with continental extensions: they would remove argument for multiple creations, yet he opposes the doctrine. Lyell will not express an opinion on this.
Lyell fears mutability would lead to more specific names.
Encloses copy of letters to Lyell [1910 and 1917].
Agrees that Lyell’s letters shed no new light on extensions issue. Continental extensions: opposes their being hypothesised all over world.
Commonality of alpine plants damns both extension and migration.
Antarctic plants most difficult to account for on any theory. Lyell’s iceberg transportal of seeds.
Are there more representative species of American origin in Tristan da Cunha than in Kerguelen land?
Whether or not there should be movement of particles according to Tyndall’s theory of glacial action ["Observations on glaciers", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 2: 54–8, 441–3].
CD subscribes to H. C. Sorby’s view of gneiss [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].
Seed-salting.
Pigeons.
Significant differences in skeletons of domesticated rabbits.
Will send MS on one point of geographical distribution. It is "of infinite importance" that JDH see it, for CD has never felt such difficulty in deciding what to do.
Wants capsules of aquatic plants, to float in sea-water.
Agrees with JDH that Cytisus report [presumably of a large change] not sound. CD pleased because, if true, species would change too quickly.
CD coming to London.
Read JDH’s review [Hooker’s Kew J. Bot. 8 (1856): 54–64 et seq.] of Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique raisonnée [1855] long ago.
