Regrets delay in answering letter but has been away from Collingwood and letter was not forwarded. Is unwilling to write article for another journal as he is already producing articles for an editor. Would editor of Good Words be interested in printing three lectures he gave at Hawkhurst on volcanoes, comets, and the sun? Could work this up for an article.

Asks for information about cases for stove-plants. [Answers recorded in another hand.]

Asks for authentic information on following questions: 1. Has the weight of the gooseberry variety London subsequently exceeded the 1845 record of 880 grains?

2. Is any record kept of the diameter of the largest pansies?

3. How early does any variety of Dahlia flower and do some varieties withstand frost better than others?

Sends first three of his Lectures to working men [on our knowledge of the phenomena of organic nature (1863)]. Does not intend them to be widely circulated.

Sends CD a Chinese breed of guinea-pig. Has heard it claimed that the domestic guinea-pig will not interbreed with the wild rock cavy and that, therefore, artificial selection has formed a new species.

Apologises for not writing last summer. Scientific progress is all but complete. Our civilisation will fall now that it has reached the peak of its development.

JS’s facts on Primula are new to CD.

In Linum CD has also found dimorphic and non-dimorphic species.

Plans to publish next autumn on successive homomorphic generations in Primula.

"Fluctuating forms" due to culture.

Urges JS to publish.

Lobelia functionally monoecious.

Where did JS publish on Clivia hybrids? Did he count parent and cross seeds, as Gärtner shows is necessary?

CD has done large experiments on artificially fertilised cowslips. They never resemble oxlips.

Would welcome detailed criticism of natural selection by a careful observer like JS. Most criticism worthless. Expects a great deal from Lyell’s reaction.

Suggests JS do orchid experiment to see if rostellum can be penetrated by pollen.

In light of recent discussions of metric system, which WS dislikes for 'lack of divisibility,' asks where to find JH's article on advantages of British measurement system.

Illness has prevented his reading Origin. He has, however, expressed his [negative] opinion on the subject of mutability of species in his Manual of geology [1862]. Since his persuasions are so strong, he can do no less.

No summary available.

Apologises for the trouble he has caused over his enquiries about strawberries. Describes the problems he and Emma have had with Verbascum.

Is sending from the Navy Board a new publication.

Discusses proposed Melbourne telescope, opinions of various scientists, and projected costs of construction.

Sends [William] Lassell's letter regarding Melbourne telescope. Pleased with scientific memoirs received from Harvard College.

JS not ready to publish on Primula.

Some of his objections to natural selection are based on belief that plants with separate sexes are less variable than those in which sexes are confluent (as in ferns).

Sends his paper on fern varieties [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 16 (1862): 209–27].

Will soon read paper on Drosera irritability [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 2d ser. 17 (1863): 317–18].

How does CD explain capricious distribution of irritability among plants?

P. scotica’s non-dimorphism is native.

Beginning Laelia experiments shortly.

JDH discusses the health of Brian Houghton Hodgson's wife. His own wife, Frances, has had a tooth out but otherwise the Hooker family are all well, he particularly mentions his son Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker "growing a pace in stature & wisdom". He mentions a rocking horse much loved by his children. Thomas Thomson & his wife spent some time at Kew & have now gone to Hastings. [Sir James William] Colvile's house is shut up. Mentions chatting with [Sir Lawrence] Peel & a coin expert named Mr. Thomas at the Athenaeum Club. [Charles] Lyell is still working on his 'age of man', JDH comments that he will struggle to reconcile his old geology with recent discoveries, including Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. [Thomas Henry] Huxley is working on a publication about the relation of men to lower animals, JDH is very impressed with it. Summarises & critiques [Richard] Owen's paper, read at the Royal Society, on the dinosaur Gryphosaurus & its relation to birds vs. reptiles. JDH notes that the paper actually backs up [Charles] Darwin's: "much disputed dogma" regarding the geological record. JDH mentions some of Darwin's work and praises him as 'the first naturalist in Europe...as great as any that ever lived'. Discusses the reception, by the press and clergy, of Bishop [John William] Colenso's writings on the interpretation of the Bible. Mentions the Schlagintweit's book.

On THH’s Lectures to working men.

Work by Ferdinand J. Cohn on the contractile tissue of plants ["Über contractile Gewebe im Pflanzenreich" Abh. Schlesischen Ges. Vaterl. Cult. 1 (1861)] seems important. CD has come to the conclusion that there must be some substance in plants analogous to the supposed diffused nervous matter in lower animals.

[Part of P.S. missing from original.]

Cannot aid TWW with respect to bees from East Indies. Suggests he write to Edward Blyth.

Thanks him for getting query on variation in bees circulated in Germany.

E. W. L. Tempel's 1860 discovery of nebula near Merope.

Has forwarded Mitchella roots and Cypripedium.