CD doubts that he will be able to do much more that is new, but cannot bear idleness. Has great amount of material on variation under nature, but so much has been published since the appearance of the Origin that he doubts he has the power of mind to render the mass into a digested whole.

Discusses possible cleistogamic flowers in Oxalis.

Sends belated birthday greetings

and an archaeological pamphlet.

Asks for CD’s autograph.

Fertilisation of orchids. Believes some plants so constituted as to dispense with cross-fertilisation.

Thinks flowers of Hottonia project from the stem nearly horizontally, perhaps slightly upwards.

Sorry that he cannot help with Pulmonaria angustifolia.

Sends cheques in payment of CD’s share of profits on Cross and self-fertilisation, now nearly exhausted,

and the latest printing of Origin.

Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s work [Philosophical discussions (1877)].

Gladstone visited recently, and they discussed the future role of the United States as a world power.

Murray’s will not announce CD’s new work [Forms of flowers] until informed to do so.

Sends an informal title-page [for Orchids, 2d ed.].

Appreciates the condolences for Frank [on death of his wife, Amy].

Thanks for account of his work. Cannot read Dutch, but son has translated it.

Thanks for album sent by PH’s countrymen.

Regrets he cannot help on Oxalis question. He did not note the names of species with cleistogamic flowers as he thought they were sufficiently known.

Oliver cannot, as CD has requested, hunt for trimorphic flowers in the Herbarium’s collection of Oxalis specimens. He would help Frank if he comes.

Wishes to reprint his four Linnean Society papers on di- and trimorphic plants [Forms of flowers]. Requests permission and woodblocks of figures.

The editor of the Agricultural Gazette asks CD to settle a point being debated in his journal. Can a desirable breed of cattle, which is so inbred as to have scrofula, be maintained by crossing with a breed of healthy constitution?

Pangenesis supports the existence of gemmules; does not accept Galton’s experiments as disproving their existence or importance.

Asks FD to mollify Daniel Oliver and assure him that CD asks "only for what I wd. give my life’s blood for".

CD apologises for his burdensome request of Oliver.

Criticises JDH’s notice on Forsythia, which JDH said was dioecious. Forsythia sent to CD from Kew was heterostylous.

Encloses statement of sales for Origin, Expression, Descent and Insectivorous plants and sends a cheque for the balance due to CD.

Has received the sheets of EG’s Spanish translation of Origin. Regrets that he cannot undertake to read them because of his health, over-work, and having forgotten much of the language. What he has read seems clearly expressed.

Evidence for inheritance of constitutional diseases like scrofula so good that it seems rash to breed tainted animal.

Experiments given in Cross and self-fertilisation show that evil of inbreeding follows from near relations possessing closely similar constitution.

Size and vigour increased by breeding plants and animals from ancestors that lived some generations under different conditions of life.