Going to Shrewsbury on Monday.

Means to attempt the question of species: "though I shall get more kicks than half-pennies, I will, life serving, attempt my work".

Kosmos [by Alexander von Humboldt] has arrived safely.

CD acknowledges his presumption in speculating on variation without having worked out his due share of species, but "for nine years it has been anyhow the greatest amusement to me".

Sorry to hear JDH did not get Edinburgh chair. Invites him to Down.

Would like to see JDH’s testimonials.

Disappointed with Kosmos.

Has visited Dean of Manchester, who is very heterodox on species.

Thanks for Antarctic flora [Flora Antarctica (1844–7)].

Agrees geographical distribution will be "the key which will unlock the mystery of species".

Could JDH look over a rough sketch on species?

Comments on JDH’s Flora Antarctica. CD is delighted with it.

"I can never cease marvelling at the similarity of the Antarctic floras: it is wonderful."

Questions JDH on points raised by the work: absence of alpine flora on southern islands; comparison of climate and floras of Tasmania and New Zealand.

Is busy with shell work and cannot make it to Kew. Invites JDH to Down. Intends asking Edward Forbes and Hugh Falconer.

Can JDH come to Down on 6 December? If this is convenient, CD will ask Forbes, Falconer, and perhaps Waterhouse.

Delighted that JDH will come to visit him.

CD’s enjoyment of JDH’s visit and "all our raging discussions".

Would like to compare insects from Kerguelen Islands with those from Tierra del Fuego.

Disappointed with Webb and Berthelot.

Delighted to hear of more species from the Galapagos, surprised to hear W. Indian character of flora.

Will come to visit Kew if Claude Gay speaks English. Otherwise would prefer to wait until spring.

Will visit JDH in spring.

Will JDH ask Gay what birds, reptiles, or mammifers inhabit Juan Fernández [Island]?

Has JDH seen William Herbert’s paper ["Local habitation and wants of plants", J. Hortic. Soc. Lond. 1 (1846): 44–9]?

Thinks JDH’s explanation of polymorphism on volcanic islands is probably correct.

Proposes experimental test to see whether alpine form of a plant is inherited like a true variety.

Has had to make a Post Office order to JDH payable at Charing Cross instead of Kew.

Does Sir William [Hooker] know the Dean of Manchester’s London address?

Sends enclosure for JDH to read [letter from E. Forbes, 956]. "I cannot see my way about his post-miocene land."

Glad to hear of JDH’s botanical appointment [with Geological Survey].

Edward Forbes has written about his subsidence doctrine; CD objects to its hypothetical base.

Agrees with JDH about Forbes’s views.

Discusses A. Saint-Hilaire’s lectures and asks on what grounds botanists judge the relative "highness" of plants.

C. G. Ehrenberg wants specimen grasses from Ascension Island.

If JDH can send grasses CD will write to Ehrenberg enclosing them.