DO’s candidacy for Professorship of Botany [at University College, London].

Henrietta’s health is better.

Paper in Botanische Zeitung [T. Nitschke, "Über die Reizbarkeit der Blätter von Drosera rotundifolia", 18: 229–34, 237–45, 245–50] missed leading point that plants close longer over animal substances. Carbonate of ammonia works on Lemna and Euphorbia roots.

Congratulations on Professorship.

Homologies between Drosera and Dionaea. Carbonate of ammonia on roots. Wants W. H. Fitch to make drawings of Dionaea. Will copy minute structure of hairs from Trécul [see 2965].

One thirty-thousandth of a grain of human hair inflects a single Drosera hair. Astonished by his results so he is not publishing until next summer. [Not published until 1875, Insectivorous plants. See ch. 2 for observations on inflection.]

Wants to study effects of acids on live Dionaea. Oliver should do their anatomy. Corresponding with chemical physiologists about carbonate of ammonia on roots.

The plant CD’s father called "flycatcher" was not Asclepias.

Dr Hooker has given him CD’s memorandum on the fly-catcher.

Copies out extract from Curtis’ Botanical Magazine [On Apocynum androsæmifolium, 8 (1794): tab.]: 280 and gives a further reference in Erasmus Darwin’s The loves of plants [1789]. Suggests that they look at Apocynum.

Requests date of [C. S.] Rafinesque[-Schmaltz], New flora of North America, pt 1 [1836].

Thanks for mentioning J. G. Kurr on nectaries [Untersuchungen über die Bedeutung der Nektarien in den Blumen (1833)]. Requests observations on flowers with curved pistils. Finds they curve toward nectary, thus lying in path of insect.

Praise for DO’s paper on Hamamelidaceae ["On Sycopis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 83–9, read 15 Mar 1860]. Everything points to its being a "bankrupt" family.

Hydropathy at Malvern may take him from Drosera. Requests Dionaea and Cypripedium.

CD will publish on Primula [Collected papers 2: 45–63]. Will DO ask W. H. Fitch to make woodcuts of "pin" and "non-pin" primroses [i.e., long-styled and short-styled forms]? Encloses a sketch.

CD never dreamed primroses did not abound with DO; apologises for trouble and sends flowers.

Will repay DO for cost of Cypripedium and for the Dionaea, if any can be got.

Primula sibirica seems to be the only non-dimorphic species. Has made over one hundred Primula crosses.

Regrets Henslow’s illness.

Asks DO to identify enclosed Fumaria or Corydalis flower, with springing hood adaptation.

Congratulations on DO’s marriage.

Thanks W. H. Fitch for drawing for the Primula paper. Death of experimental plants delays publication.

Requests that exotic species of Vinca, which never set seed at Kew, be fertilised by pressing a fine bristle between anthers as a moth would its proboscis.

Asks that Primula farinosa be sent.

Has put Drosera off while amusing himself with Primula and orchids.

Dionaea is prettily adapted to weight detection.

Asks DO to look for nectar in Stanhopea saccata labellum. CD’s theory predicts nectar should be present, but afraid there is none.

Finds no trace of nectar in Stanhopea saccata.

List of references on orchid structure and fertilisation.

Thanks for "multitudinous" references.

Thanks Hooker for orchids.