Sends parcel of plants from [George] Arnott, just returned from excursion to Scotland. Sends copy of his work on Pyrenaean plants; apologises for delay; printed in a hasty manner. The last year so taken up with his legal studies that he has neglected botany, but time spent with Arnott and [William Jackson] Hooker has revived his interest; wrote to Montpellier, [France], to have his herbarium sent over.

Cites cases of leguminous plants whose cleistogamic flowers produce more seed than perfect flowers. [See Forms of flowers, p. 326.]

Returns CD’s lists [sent with 2184]. Confusion in genera of Silene is great in continental botanic gardens. One would have to know whether C. F. v. Gärtner had the right names for species in his experiments.

Remarks about Labiatae, Linum, Oxalis and Viola occasioned by hearing CD’s paper ["Two forms of Primula", read 21 Nov 1861, Collected papers 2: 45–63].

Lists pairs of Oxalis species with differing proportions of stamens and styles.

Thanks CD for his book [Orchids]. CD has opened a new field for observation and a new unexpected track to explore phenomena that had before appeared "irreconcilable with ordinary opinion and method shown in the organic world".

Sends CD the reference for GB’s summary of Targioni-Tozzetti’s work [see 3760].

Hopes for a communication to the Linnean Society from CD "this winter".

CD’s paper [on Linum] is announced for reading at the Linnean Society on 5 February.

Asks CD whether he knows of "anything worth looking at" that has appeared abroad on his theory of the origin of species.

Has not yet read the pamphlets [selection of reviews of Origin, sent by CD at GB’s request]. Though GB does not go so far as Hooker in accepting all of CD’s hypotheses and does not feel up to a thorough discussion of his views, he hopes in his Linnean Anniversary Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix] to speak on the present state of the [species] question.

Returns CD’s pamphlets.

Wishes CD would work out further what keeps certain species immutable for great periods.

Feels himself a convert, but cannot go all lengths with CD.

Feels some reviewers distort CD’s argument.

Sends specimens of two species of Aegiphila [see Forms of flowers, p. 123]. Discusses similar forms in other plants.

Replies to CD’s two memoranda, GB explains: 1. That he never said thistles do not produce seeds, but rather that the infinite majority of new plants are propagated from buds

2. That book-borrowing rules of the Linnean Library are not so stringent as the Librarian makes out.

Is unable to fix a day for luncheon until later.

Has studied Variation with interest.

Cannot quite follow CD on reversion and Pangenesis,

but is amazed at CD’s observations and method.

Comments on varieties of asses, kidney beans, and artichokes.

Discusses Hildebrand

and criticises Delpino.

Asks to borrow C. K. Sprengel’s Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur [1793].

Botanists have no explanation of the case of Viola odorata and other showy flowers being sterile while inconspicuous ones bear seed.

Asks CD to sign enclosed certificate first, as he does not know T. H. Farrer personally. [On top part of first two pages of a letter to Hooker from H. C. Rothery about Farrer’s nomination for Linnean Society]

The Linnean Society Council wants CD to review two papers, with reference to their value for publication.

Will have Fritz Müller’s letter ["On the modification of the stamens in a species of Begonia", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 11 (1871): 472–4] read at next Linnean Society meeting [read 3 June 1869].

Has given the seeds to Daniel Oliver.

Has heard that CD thinks GB is wrong on some points in his [Presidential] Address [to Linnean Society, see 6793]. Asks CD to point out where he is wrong.