Reports events at Down.

The "atrocious doings" of "Old Price". Price’s dispute with Sir John Lubbock over a boundary fence.

[Written on CD’s annotated copy of a pamphlet reprint of CM’s review of Coral reefs.] CD asks CM to return the pamphlet to him.

Congratulates FitzRoy on his appointment as Governor of New Zealand. Wants to see him and his wife before their departure. Proposes to call on them in London next Thursday.

CD will sent seeds to specialists for identification.

Has not yet heard from R. Brown, but John Lindley thinks species will probably turn out to be common ones.

Describes alterations being made at Down House. Accepts father’s offer to lend him money.

Classification consists of grouping beings according to descent from common stocks. Analogies are resemblances between forms not inherited from common stocks. Neither number of species nor grade of organisation should be considered in classification. Admits that caution is necessary in admitting a few species to form a group of rank equal to one containing many species.

Has no objection to uniting Monotremata and other marsupials but would object to doing so solely on ground that Monotremata consists of only two species. Members of a natural group need not share common character so long as they are linked with those which do. Believes that if every organism that ever lived were collected, a perfect series would be presented. What are reasons that unite Aptera and Diptera?

Tells how W. Kemp found the seeds of Atriplex, which Lindley sent to JSH for identification.

Asks about monstrous plant mentioned by Lindley [see 690].

Seeds sent by Kemp have germinated and been identified by Lindley as Rumex acetosella and an Atriplex which has been sent on to J. S. Henslow.

Thanks him for specimens collected.

Comments on JED’s voyage [on H.M.S. Terror, 1839–43].

Mentions activities of old Beagle crew.

WK’s paper has reached him safely.

News of the Shrewsbury family. He cannot get his father to sympathise with the numbness in his finger ends or his fears of "ruin and extravagance".

CD has written to W. Kemp to ascertain what precautions he took in sowing his seeds. "It will be rather flat if you … pronounce the Atriplex to be merely a variety". Suggests sending plants to C. C. Babington.

J. S. Henslow expresses his doubts about WK’s seeds.

J. S. Henslow’s and C. C. Babington’s opinions on WK’s seeds.

Babington has reared a facsimile [of W. Kemp’s Atriplex] by sowing seeds of A. angustifolia. CD has advised Kemp not to publish since anyone would say it was more probable that the seeds of his specimens were in the soil, than that the ones he found had retained vitality. CD regrets this, as he has no doubt of the antiquity of the seeds.

CD has been reflecting on John Lindley’s and C. C. Babington’s comments.

Congratulations on JDH’s safe return.

Henslow has sent CD’s S. American plants to JDH for examination.

CD is pleased with how good a case WK’s facts have made.