HCW’s criticisms of CD’s theory.

Thanks for plant names.

H. C. Watson a renegade about natural selection. Discusses HCW’s views.

F. Müller’s letter enclosed.

Friedrich Hildebrand’s experiments are splendid for Pangenesis [Die Geschlechter-Vertheilung bei den Pflanzen (1867)].

Grieved by Wollaston’s troubles. Offers contribution of £100. "How foolish men are in their investments."

Delight about George’s success.

Royal Society Council would feel bound to vote for Candolle, but privately would twenty times rather see Asa Gray elected.

Asks for title of Wollaston’s Cape Verde book [Coleoptera Hesperidum (1867)].

Supposes JDH has received his letter in answer to Gray.

Has been writing two long papers for Linnean Society [reprinted in Forms of flowers].

Comments on Wollaston’s troubles

and his book [Coleoptera Hesperidum (1867)].

Mohl’s claim to foreign membership in Royal Society very strong.

Has been in despair about Variation – not worth a fifth part of the labour it cost him.

Is reading F. A. W. Miquel’s Flora du Japon [Prolusio florae Japonicae (1866–7)]; wonders whether A. Murray could be correct in his view that an area of the sea prevented Asiatico-Japan flora colonising western N. America.

Comments on A. Murray’s book [Geographical distribution of mammals (1866)].

Has heard that Variation sold the whole edition of 1500 copies in a week [see 5844]. Has done him a world of good. Pall Mall Gazette has review which pleased him exceedingly [see 5874].

Review in Athenæum full of contempt. Is sure Owen wrote it [see 5931].

Gardeners’ Chronicle review [(1868): 184] favourable.

Fears Pangenesis is still-born. Cites Bates, Spencer, Lubbock, and Sir Henry Holland. Is sure Pangenesis will sometime reappear. Questions that are connected and answered by Pangenesis.

Does not understand JDH on Pangenesis: on last page he appears to admit all that he regards as mere words on previous pages.

Wallace admires chapter on Pangenesis.

Pangenesis is a comfort. CD gains no idea from words like "potentiality" or "diffusing an influence"; atoms and cells give a distinct idea.

A. Newton told George that Berthold Seemann wrote the Athenæum review

and that Lewis [Lewes] did not write the Pall Mall Gazette review [see 5874].

Arrangements to dine at JDH’s club.

He and Lizzie [Elizabeth Darwin] will come to Kew on Saturday.

Defers visit [to Kew] because of ill health.

Asks for [John?] Smith’s exact count of seeds of the crossed and self-fertilised Victoria water-lily. Similar question on Euryale seed and seedlings.

JDH’s coming [BAAS] Presidential Address.

Encloses grass from locust dung sent from Natal. Asks for name of grass.

JDH too severe on Duke of Argyll.

Pities JDH on [BAAS] address [see 6099]; Huxley feels JDH will do well and will not pity him.

Thinks Huxley will give an excellent and original lecture on geographical distribution of birds.

Has been working hard on sexual selection and correspondence about it.

Mignonette is sterile with its own pollen but any two distinct plants are fertile together. It is utterly mysterious and not even Pangenesis will explain it.

On Lyell’s book [Principles, 10th ed.].

Wallace’s wonderful cleverness, but he is not cautious enough. CD differs from Wallace on birds’ nests and protection.

A. Murray’s miserable criticism of Wallace [J. Travel & Nat. Hist. 1 (1868): 137–45].

Congratulations on birth of daughter. CD used to dread birth-time.

Sexual selection has turned out to be a large subject.

Sends second lot of grass grown from locust dung pellets from Natal.

On Pour le Mérite; JDH has made him think more highly of it.

Messiah is the one thing he would like to hear again, but thinks his soul might be too dried up now to appreciate it. Sometimes hates science for making him "a withered leaf" for everything else.

Frank [Darwin] now doing botany seriously.

Thanks for name of grass.

Plans to go to Isle of Wight on 17 July.

Frank cannot come to Kew, as he will be reading this long vacation at Cambridge.

Delighted with Bentham’s Presidential Address [Linnean Society, 1868].

Thinks JDH would be wise not to touch on Pangenesis; it has very few friends. Bentham is doubtful, Carus against, and Alphonse de Candolle likes it least in the book. CD still convinced it will be hereafter looked on as "best hypothesis of generation inheritance & development". If JDH means to cut up Pangenesis he has no word to say in opposition.

Looks forward to seeing JDH and hearing about address.

Feels better already.

Disappointed in house [they have taken at Freshwater].