Thanks HGB for agreeing to superintend translation of Origin.

Comments on HGB’s review.

Encloses corrections and preface for Schweizerbart. Discusses translation of term "natural selection".

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

On what kind of moth have pollen-masses of orchids been found cohering? Will ask Mr Parfitt if he is certain he recognised pollen-masses of bee orchid. CD thinks green masses were those of true Orchis.

[In P.S., having received a letter on subject from HTS responding to same query published in Gard. Chron. 9 June 1860:] It is extremely curious that the same moth has been found with pollen-masses in two parts of England.

Has had a very satisfactory answer from Mr Parfitt. Asks HTS to insert query in Entomologist’s Weekly Intelligencer and also to answer it himself. ["Do the Tineina and other small moths suck flowers?", Collected papers 2: 35–6.]

Regrets he cannot answer SPW’s questions.

Discusses antiquity of subaerial volcanoes.

Disagrees "entirely & absolutely" with L. von Buch’s "elevation-crater-theory".

Ice could not have formed the blockages in Lochaber unless in every case the water escaped over some col into a contiguous valley on the same watershed, or into the eastern watershed. Supposes that the cols were not land-straits, but the places where the lakes were drained when forced to flow the wrong way.

"Read a letter from Mr Darwin suggesting the Translation of Gaertner’s work [Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849)]."

Would be delighted to see FB for a few minutes but his health is so poor he doubts it would be worth the trouble for FB to visit.

Thanks about the otter-hound.

Concerning the proposed translation of K. F. von Gärtner’s Bastarderzeugung (1849).

"Read a letter from Mr Darwin expressing his regret that the state of his health would not permit of his writing an Introductory Chapter to the Translation of Gaertner’s work [Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849)]."

Encloses a sketch of the principal events in his life [for RH’s memoir on CD in Walford, ed., Portraits of men of eminence (1863–7)].

CD asks if he can call tomorrow (Friday) at 9: 30, and offers to come on Saturday if that would suit CL better.

Wishes to know the correct name for the British Museum’s specimen of an Abyssinian wolf described by Wilhelm Rueppell, Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien [1835–40] .

Asks for information on coloration and proportions of sexes in butterflies and moths for his work on sexual selection.

Sends a preliminary reply to CD’s query [5890]. Ten males to one female among captured micro-Lepidoptera. Six females to four or five males in those he has bred. HTS is aware this is diametrically opposed to information from [Alexander] Wallace and Bates, but the true proportion of sexes can only be ascertained by breeding.

Thanks EW for information [on expression] about Australians.

Discusses factors possibly influencing the sex of caterpillars. Is gathering information on sex ratios in insects and would welcome any cases in which males seem to outnumber females.

Replies to CD on proportion of sexes in butterflies, coloration of moths, and courtship. Encloses copies of letters on these subjects between HTS, Henry Doubleday, and John Hellins.

Thanks HTS for his valuable information. Hopes to arrive at probable answer to question of proportion of males to females in the progeny of butterflies bred in domestication.

On courtship of butterflies, CD believes something more than chance is involved in determining which male is successful.

Protective coloration in butterflies.

[Alexander] Wallace’s suggestion that collecting larger larvae of females accounts for error in counting proportion of sexes.