Encourages JS to continue work on coloured primrose. No one has noticed this since Gärtner. CD will send his own data for JS’s use and will read MS when ready. Advises JS to repeat experiments if evidence is weak – for his reputation’s sake and for satisfaction at fully establishing a fact.

Treviranus made a slip of pen in writing of Primula longiflora as short-styled.

Thanks JS for orchid paper [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50]. JS presents excellent new facts on sterility of orchids.

His argument that coloured primroses are not hybrids is good, as is idea of discovering primrose parentage by breeding for colours.

Has read JS’s paper [MS of "Observations on the functions and structure of the reproductive organs in the Primulaceae", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 78–126] which has interested him greatly. Will communicate it to the Linnean Society if JS carries out a few corrections.

Would like to hear about his Verbascum and Passiflora experiments.

Glad correspondent’s paper went well.

Poor health and much work forces CD to be brief.

JS’s Primula paper was read at the Linnean Society and praised warmly by G. Bentham. Hooker was not present.

Bentham so impressed with JS’s paper that he is invited to become Associate Member of Linnean Society.

Regrets that JS has left the [Edinburgh] Botanic Garden and that [J. D.] Hooker is not in a position to secure a foreign appointment for him. Offers financial assistance on the grounds of science.

Has sent JS a copy of the Reader.

Corrects his former account of cowslips.

The delay in the publication of JS’s Primula paper.

Delights in JS’s experimentation on Verbascum which confirms [C. F.] Gärtner’s statements.

Should be pleased if JS would accept offer of help.

Encloses an extract from a letter received from [J. D.] Hooker which suggests a job opportunity in India. Advises careful reflection about the risks and the need for a character recommendation. Would like to support the costs of the voyage and initial living expenses.

Letter of recommendation stating his high opinion of John Scott.

Supports relocating the Calcutta Botanic Garden to a site near the Himalayas.

As JS’s powers of observation seem to exist in all lines, CD begs further information from him and [H. N. B.] Erskine about the natives’ expressions of indignation, affirmation, and negation. The movements of the eyebrows and forehead of a girl in violent grief are of particular interest.

Do sub-breeds of pigeons exist in India as in Europe, but not in England? If so, what is the colour of the plumage in males and females at different stages of development?

JS should not consider repaying CD; the money was a gift, not a loan.

JS’s information on expression is the best he has received.

Is resuming the study of worm-casts as he believes they will bear on the denudation of land. Requests specific information on the relative number, size, and manner of deterioration of worm-casts in India.

JS’s valuable observations on worms in India along with Asa Gray’s in the United States confirm CD’s opinion that worms work in the same way all over the world. Requests further information on the subject.

Acknowledges a box of worm-casts from India and a bottle of worms in spirits. There is no memorandum.

His book on expression is finished and includes valuable information from JS.

Acknowledges JS’s excellent letter of 25 September. May CD assume that the gigantic worm-casts were nearly circular when measured before the rain?

That a medical man should always have the place of superintendent seems a piece of jobbery.

Mentions [George] King.

JS’s thin paper renders some words on other side almost illegible.

CD has read the two reports on culture of poppies with interest and has planted seeds.

Suggests an experiment for evidence on whether plants, thought merely varieties, are like species and fail to intercross, despite insect pollination.

CD is eager for further information about Lagerstroemia, which is sterile with its own pollen. Does the collection of dried plants reveal more than one form? Plans to republish papers on dimorphism.