CD writes as the Treasurer of the Down Coal and Clothing Club and the Down Friendly Club, requesting subscriptions.

Congratulates JDH on receipt of Royal Medal.

CD gathering facts on aberrant genera of insects.

Calculating small number of species in aberrant genera of insects and plants.

Joachim Barrande’s "Colonies", Élie de Beaumont’s "lines of Elevation", Forbes’s "Polarity" make CD despair, as these theories lead to conclusions opposite to CD’s from the same classes of facts.

JDH’s "grand speech" on receiving the Royal Medal.

Is Bentham’s list of aberrant genera biased by exclusion of genera with many species?

JDH’s belief that Aquilegia varieties are one species is consistent with their great interfertility.

Debates aberrant species, e.g., Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, with JDH. CD argues they are result of extinction having removed intermediate links to allied forms.

Studying effects of disuse in wings of tame and wild ducks.

Tabulations showing that number of species in a genus is not correlated with number of genera in an order.

Thanks for subscription to Down Coal and Clothing Club, whose finances are improving.

Latitude overrules everything in distribution. Alpine distributions are like insular. Tabulating proportions.

T. V. Wollaston’s Madeira insects: many flightless, thus not blown to sea. TVW’s insects do not confirm Forbes’s Atlantis.

Acknowledges a list [of plants?].

Looks forward to new edition [of British plants growing wild in the parish of Hitcham, Suffolk, 2d ed. (1855)].

JSH should not trouble about Anacharis until he is less busy. Will send cirripedes.

Thanks JSH for Anacharis which is flourishing.

P. H. Gosse told him he had several sea animals and algae living in artificial sea-water for over 13 months.

CD has begun seed-salting experiments. Wants JDH to write which seeds he expects to be easily killed [in salt water].

CD’s idea that coal-plants lived in salt water like mangroves made JDH savage.

Pea self-fertilisation: has forty-five varieties growing side by side.

Describes seed-salting experiments: e.g., immersion in tank filled with snow. Reports some successful germinations.

Made list of naturalised plants from Asa Gray’s Manual [of Botany] to calculate the proportions of the great families.

Rejects JDH’s suggestion that seed-salting experiments be conducted on huge scale. Only wishes to demonstrate possibility of sea transport, not establishment of any particular insular flora. More seed results.

More on seed-salting. JDH’s admission that he expected seeds to die in a week gives CD "a nice little triumph".

Praise for JL’s interesting paper ["On the freshwater entomostraca of South America", Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. n.s. 3 (1854–6): 232–46].

The new pigeon house is nearly complete.

CD is busy trying all sorts of experiments on salting seeds.

Is collecting facts on variation; questions AG on the alpine flora of the U. S.

Sends a list of plants from AG’s Manual of botany [1848] and asks him to append the ranges of the species.

JDH to be appointed Assistant Director at Kew.

On where to publish seed-salting paper. Floating problem perhaps more important than germination.

CD upset because salted seeds do not float.

CD’s seed paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle [Collected papers 1: 255–8];

CD attacks Forbes’s "Atlantis".

Considers solutions to floating problem. Decides to test Azores seeds.

Photographs and drawings of CD.

Plant movement experiments with Hedysarum gyrans.