Has received copies of translation of Origin. Thanks HGB for undertaking it.
Comments on review by F. J. Pictet ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce, par Charles Darwin: analyse et critique",Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55].
Sends a letter concerning priority [of Patrick Matthew] for JDH to read and post.
Angered at Owen’s review.
Huxley’s Royal Institution lecture ends well.
Discusses crosses in sweetpeas and the difference between monstrosities and slight variations. Discusses peloric flowers.
Thanks for correction about furze.
No summary available.
CD elected correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
What a base dog Owen is for praising his own work in reviewing Origin [anonymously].
J. H. Balfour is narrow-minded.
CD cannot understand pollination of Goodenia.
CD’s observations on curved styles read well. JDH seeks morphological rationale of curvature in the position of nectaries.
He has avoided lecturing to Royal Family’s children at Buckingham Palace.
No summary available.
CD intrigued by the pollination mechanism of Leschenaultia formosa.
CD interested in Thomas Bell’s rumour that Owen avows his review.
Curved styles and their relation to pollination.
No summary available.
Sends list of plants with asymmetry in nectar-secreting surfaces and pistils bent in that direction. Shows insect agency so important that structure has changed. Asks for contrary or confirming examples and that request be passed on to Daniel Oliver.
Has examined Leschenaultia and concludes the external viscid surfaces have nothing to do with the stigmatic surface. Agrees with CD’s style and nectary conclusions; accounts for their form and position in irregular flowers by describing floral development.
[Enclosed are some queries by CD with answers by JDH. Gives information on seed setting by Mucuna
and an opinion on the abruptness of N. and S. limits of plant ranges.]
Gives CD references to papers on eyes of lower animals.
No summary available.
No summary available.
JDH has settled the Leschenaultia case, but it remains a difficulty to CD.
Goodenia, like bee orchid, seems a case of a structure with an evident function, which is not carried out. Is curvature of styles an incidental result of growth or a pollination adaptation?
Cannot supply a case of atavism in canaries.
Will lend CD back issues of Cottage Gardener.
Cites case of bird (tumbler hen) laying egg in another’s nest.
Has read Origin with pleasure.
Has performed many experiments which confirm his opinion that primrose, oxlip, and cowslip are three distinct species.
Responds to CD’s comments on his review of the Origin. Regrets lack of space often causes him to do injustice to CD and to himself. Agrees to alter some of his statements
and offers some evidence for his opinions on plant hybridising.
Sends references to papers mentioning cave insects. Paussi are not blind, as CD thinks, though some other insects that live in ants’ nests are. Each country over the world has its peculiar species of Paussi, though they all live in ants’ nests. "Physical condition I say – Natural Selection you say".
Reports to CD on what he has found out about Elodea growing near Cambridge.
Sedgwick is speaking at [Cambridge] Philosophical Society on CD’s "supposed errors" [Camb. Herald & Huntingdonshire Gaz. 19 May 1860, pp. 3–4].
JSH wonders how Owen can be so savage toward CD’s views when his own are "to a certain extent of the same character".
