Asks for information about birds eating berries of a mountain-ash.

Thanks FJP for his review which CD has received and read. There have been many reviews in England opposed to CD but FJP’s is "the single one which seems … perfectly fair & just & candid". The only difference between them is that CD "attaches much more weight to the explanation of facts, & somewhat less weight to the difficulties" than FJP. "I always jump at any theory which groups & explains facts".

Would be proud to send FJP a copy of his Journal of researches.

Has no drone cells in collection of honeycombs. Discusses construction of cells by bees and ability of bees to judge distances in constructing comb.

Thanks for information about French dictionaries.

Asks that Westminster Review [of Apr 1860] be sent.

Reminds JSH to send "sketch & account of the wasp’s comb in transitional state from horizontal to vertical, & the country whence procured".

Asks for information on spread of Anacharis [Elodea].

Sedgwick [in criticism of Origin] was not very fair, but Murray says it is splendid for selling copies to "the unfortunate students".

Thinks AG’s review [of Origin] will aid much in making people think about subject.

Has been savagely and unfairly reviewed by Adam Sedgwick in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860],

but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] a very fair one.

Has studied CD’s Jamaican hive-bees and finds them identical to Apis mellifica.

Discusses the structure of wasps’ and bees’ nests

and the occurrence of winged and apterous individuals within some insect genera and species.

Has not yet read Huxley’s review of Origin in Westminster Review [Apr 1860].

F. J. Pictet has published an excellent review, though opposed to CD, in Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève [Mar 1860].

Variations in sizes of bees’ cells.

Comments enthusiastically on WBC’s review ["The theory of development in nature", Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404].

Sketch and description of a [wasp’s] nest from Cuba. [Notes by CD on wasps’ nests and comb-building habits of hive-bees.]

Much interested in MTM’s lecture at Royal Institution ["On the relation between the abnormal and normal formations in plants", Notes Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 3 (1860): 223–7].

Asks for information about crossing of varieties of peas. Describes his own experimental results: "the offspring out of the same pod, instead of being intermediate, was very nearly like the two pure parents; yet in one, there was a trace of the cross & the next generation showed still more plainly their mongrel origins".

Asks AW about archaeological evidence concerning the first appearance of dray horses.

Facts and inferences relating to different varieties of sweetpeas.

Orders a copy of Matthew 1831 from a bookseller.

Owen on the branchiae of Balanidae.

The Edinburgh Review article on the Origin [by Owen, 111 (1860): 487–532] full of misrepresentations, with a brutal attack on THH.

Asks for information about Anacharis.

Asks that a copy of Origin [1860] be sent to R. A. von Kölliker.

A venomous review "manifestly by Owen" has appeared in Edinburgh Review.

Sedgwick has been fierce in Spectator, but fair and open.

Has received copies of translation of Origin. Thanks HGB for undertaking it.

Comments on review by F. J. Pictet ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce, par Charles Darwin: analyse et critique",Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55].

W. B. Carpenter’s review of Origin [in Br. & Foreign Med.-Chir. Rev. 25 (1860): 367–404] "very good and well balanced, but not brilliant".

"There is a brilliant review by Huxley" [Westminster Rev. 17 (1860): 541–70].

Asa Gray sends good case of selection producing black pigs in Virginia.

Great blow to CD that CL cannot admit potency of natural selection.

Owen’s review in Edinburgh Review [111 (1860): 487–532] "extremely malignant, clever".

Patrick Matthew has published extract in Gardeners’ Chronicle [7 Apr 1860] from his Naval timber and arboriculture [1831], a complete but not developed anticipation of natural selection.