Thanks CL for copy of Antiquity of man [4th ed. (1873)]; will read the modified or new parts.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Wishes to dedicate his memoir ["Monographie der Gattung Anthracotherium", Paleontographica 22 (1876): 131–347] to CD as founder of evolutionary theory.
Praises Expression.
Reports on Fritz Müller’s observations of cross- and self-fertilisation. HM will cultivate the two forms [i.e., mainly self-fertilised and mainly cross-fertilised] in the way CD has described.
He continues his observation of wild flowers. Encloses drawing of Viola tricolor with notes on its self-fertility.
In Variation CD claims there are no distinct races of carp, but AR says that in Germany a peculiar and constant variety of carp has been bred.
JDH thanks Asa Gray for sending him some boxes of roots. He has received useful information regarding North American Pines from George Engelmann, whom he wishes would also study American oaks. Mentions: a case of Sikkim Rhododendrons for H. Hunnewell, death of John Torrey, sending Bolander subtropical plants including hardier palms. Some boxes from Gray arrived smashed, some things were lost possibly including the Pinguicula & Chaptalia. JDH owes Charles Sprague Sargent a letter. Ashes are hopeless, the arboretum has been hard work the past winter. JDH will go to France with Thomas Henry Huxley [THH] who has been recommended a holiday for his health. George Bentham is working on Mimosas for Martius' Flora. William Thiselton-Dyer is to withdraw from the Horticultural Society & give a series of lectures on botany at South Kensington for the National School teachers. JDH explains what form the lectures will take, they are modelled after THH's zoology lectures. JDH has been unwell but is recovered & has resumed work on the Vaccineae for GENERA PLANTARUM. Welwitsch affair not yet settled. Owen's wife has died. The Royal Commission will recommend that RBG Kew become the national herbarium with a separate Paleontological one at the British Museum [of Natural History].
No summary available.
No summary available.
VOK’s paper ["Osteology of Hyopotamidae", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 21 (1872–3): 147–65] appears a very valuable one.
Discusses work of VOK’s brother [Alexander] on Sagitta and the ascidians.
Offers to exchange a water-colour portrait of CD, done, he believes, by Fanny Biddulph, for a copy of Descent.
There has been a decrease of game-birds in the area.
No summary available.
Asks that recipient forward the enclosed message from Dr Hoffmann [August Wilhelm von Hofmann?] which involves an invitation from Berlin Chemical Society to join a committee for a statue in memory of Justus Liebig.
Has no doubt he will find JJW’s address interesting.
Thinks same spot for nesting might prove attractive to birds, though they had had no intercommunication.
Sends results of his observations of cross- and self-fertilisation of Hypecoum grandiflorum and Eschscholzia californica [see Cross and self-fertilisation, pp. 331–2].
Thanks for ‘Die Schutzmittel des Pollens gegen die Nachtheile vorzeitiger Dislocation und gegen die Nachtheile vorzeitiger Befeuchtung’ (Preventive measures of pollen against damage by premature dislocation and moistening; Kerner 1873) and several pamphlets.
Address moved by [William Jackson] Hooker and agreed at the Linnean Society anniversary meeting, congratulating Pleasance Smith on her 100th birthday.
Calls CD’s attention to the fact that Huxley’s view [in Lessons in elementary physiology (1866)] of lymphatic fluid as overflow from blood supports CD’s view of secretion of tears in Expression.
Thanks to CD his candidature for the Zoological Society has been entertained.
Observed a flamingo, at the Zoological Gardens, that vomited on a bustard in answer to the latter’s harsh cries.
Poa annua shows putative evidence of nectar secretion in grasses. He will continue observations as CD requests.