He is surveying the literature on the struggle for existence among pasture plants. Asks CD for the "many cases on record" of changed relations among plants under slightly changed conditions alluded to in the Origin. [See M. T. Masters, J. B. Lawes and J. M. Gilbert "Agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of experiments on the mixed herbage of permanent meadow, conducted for more than twenty years in succession on the same land (pt 2, The botanical results)", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 173 (1883): 1181–413.]

In response to CD’s query, answers that he has frequently heard discussions at the Horticultural Society of a saccharine secretion from leaves of the lime and has no doubt it really does occur. [See Cross and self-fertilisation, p. 402.]

Discusses views of [Alexander James] Maule on potatoes.

Discusses graft-hybrids.

Reports on the flowering and growth of a branch of Echeveria stolonifera.

Thanks CD for his specimen of "self-containedness". Some of the bromeliads will flower under similar treatment, but MTM does not know whether they seed.

Sends the name of a plant: Cotyledon stolonifera.

Praise for Movement in plants.

He thinks G. A. Chatin, whom CD quotes [p. 389], is mistaken about movement of conifer leaves. Cites his own paper ["Relations between morphology and physiology in the leaves of certain conifers", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 17 (1880): 547–52].

Thanks for note. CD had had misgivings about Chatin but had assumed he was trustworthy [see Movement in plants, p. 389].