Darwin comments that Hooker's letter to ARW is perfect and that he has forwarded it to ARW along with one from himself. Darwin states he had resigned himself to giving up priority regarding evolution by natural selection to ARW but for influence from Lyell and Hooker.

JDH’s letter to Wallace perfect. CD’s feelings about priority. Without Lyell’s and JDH’s intervention CD would have given up all claims to Wallace. Now planning 30-page abstract for a journal.

Observations on floral structure

and slave-making ants.

Sends proofs [of "On the tendency of species to form varieties … ", read 1 July 1858, Collected papers 2: 3–19]. CD could publish his abstract [later the Origin] as a separate supplemental number of [Journal of the Linnean Society].

JDH has studied in detail CD’s manuscript on variable species in large and small genera and concurs with its consequences. Discusses methodological idiosyncrasies of systematists, e.g., Bentham, Robert Brown, and C. C. Babington, which complicate CD’s tabulations.

Discusses the absence of a native bee in New Zealand and the insects which probably performed its fertilising function [see "Agency of bees in fertilization", Collected papers 2: 21]. Describes the success of the naturalised hive-bee and also the rapid spread of introduced members of the Fabaceae.