CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
Has filled up CD’s paper [see 1674].
Distribution and relationships of alpine flora in U. S.
Reports that he sees the oxlip, cowslip, and primrose as really distinct species; hybrids are formed between any two.
Finds Forbes’s continental theories, migration, and double creation are all unsatisfactory explanations of geographical distribution of plants.
Is currently working on problems of sea transport of plant species.
European plants on Australian Alps only explicable by double creations.
Discusses hybrid plants he has raised, particularly hybrids between Geum urbanum and G. rivale, which are very fertile and exhibit great variability. [See Natural selection, p. 102.]
Red and white campions: JSH regards them as races, not species; a flesh-coloured intermediate exists.
Sends a list of "close" species from his Manual of botany.
Hopes Hooker or CD will write an essay on species. Discusses some of the difficulties of defining botanical species.
Answers queries on Azores fauna and flora.
Notes on the interbreeding of different races of silkworm. [Forwarded with explanatory note by Edward Blyth.]
Australian Leguminosae problem: of 900 species not ten are common to southwest and southeast. No migration; hence either creation or variation.
Himalayan thistles: graded intermediates between large and small English species, "shakes species to their foundations". Similarity of CD’s and his views on species.
Returns CD’s list of Azores plants with information on the distribution of the species added. Encloses a list, extracted from CD’s list, of those plants common to Europe and the Azores that were probably not introduced by man.
Discusses how best to simulate the light at a particular point on the earth’s surface using coloured glass; considers sunlight as composed of three "principles", varying in proportion according to latitude, which affect germination, lignification, and floriation.
Informs CD which colours of glass accelerate germination, lignification, and floriation; advises CD on obtaining such glass and offers his help in any experiments.
Sends a skeleton of a Bengal jungle cock.
Has never heard of trained otters breeding in captivity.
Introduced domestic rabbits are confined to the ports of India.
Canaries and other tame finches and thrushes brought into India do not breed well.
Origin of the domestic canary. Tendency of domesticated birds to produce "top-knot" varieties.
The tame geese of lower Bengal are hybrids; those of upper Bengal are said to be pure Anser cygnoides.
Wild Anser cinereus occur in flocks in the cold season.
Discusses at length different breeds of domestic cats and possible wild progenitors. Wild and domestic cats occasionally interbreed. The Angora variety breeds freely with the common Bengal cat and all stages of intermediates can be found.
Believes pigeons have been bred in India since remote antiquity.
Discusses whether mankind is divided into races or distinct species.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
Gives names of German dealers who provide seed of superior quality.
Is having difficulties marking close species on the list of British plants.
In all his attempts to advance geographical botany he is stopped by the "application and signification of the word ""species"" " the use of which is both "indefinite and variable". He encloses his list of "Categories of Species".
Sends a catalogue of plants [missing] with the close species marked.
Gives extracts from a letter by Thomas Hutton.
Rabbits are kept (generally by Europeans) in the NW. provinces and breed freely. Canaries are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. EB gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
Close species in large and small genera.
Artificiality of botanical classification.
Comments on the ease with which different species of Felis can be tamed.
Asian species of wild cattle.
Variation in colour of jackals.
Discusses the difficulties of differentiating between varieties and species. EB recommends Herman Schlegel’s definition of species [in Essay on the physiognomy of serpents, trans. T. S. Traill (1843)]. Problems of defining species of wolves and squirrels. Pigeons and doves afford an illustration of "clusters of species, varieties, or races". Various pigeons have local species in different parts of India and Burma, some of which interbreed where their ranges cross; as do the local species of Coracias [see Natural selection, p. 259].
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this memorandum.]
