Lateral teeth in Arcadae.

Gives CD page references [in The new statistical account of Scotland, vol. 14, pp 446, 507] for information regarding parallel roads.

Note on editorial details concerning names of fossil shells [for South America, appendix]. The Latin for "Darwin" is "Darvinius".

Describes his reasoning in classifying CD’s Turritella ambulacrum specimens into two sorts. GBS holds that distinguishing characters, whether of species or varieties, should always be noticed. [See South America, appendix, pl. III, fig. 49.]

Disappointed with Webb and Berthelot.

Delighted to hear of more species from the Galapagos, surprised to hear W. Indian character of flora.

Sends identifications of CD’s Bahia Blanca fossil shells [see 830].

Goes on the assumption that each species has one origin, is immutable, and migrates.

Disagrees with Gaudichaud[-Beaupré] that volcanic island species are polymorphous.

Some mundane genera vary, others do not (Senecio vs Gnaphalium).

John Lindley’s doctrine of longevity of trees is amazing.

Edward Forbes’s health is better.

Will come to visit Kew if Claude Gay speaks English. Otherwise would prefer to wait until spring.

Gives his opinion on the tropical character of fossil shells listed by CD. The shells of Navidad [Chile] are not particularly tropical.

Will visit JDH in spring.

Will JDH ask Gay what birds, reptiles, or mammifers inhabit Juan Fernández [Island]?

Has JDH seen William Herbert’s paper ["Local habitation and wants of plants", J. Hortic. Soc. Lond. 1 (1846): 44–9]?

Thinks JDH’s explanation of polymorphism on volcanic islands is probably correct.

Proposes experimental test to see whether alpine form of a plant is inherited like a true variety.

Has had to make a Post Office order to JDH payable at Charing Cross instead of Kew.

Does Sir William [Hooker] know the Dean of Manchester’s London address?

Sends enclosure for JDH to read [letter from E. Forbes, 956]. "I cannot see my way about his post-miocene land."

Answers CD’s objections with botanical and geological arguments supporting the existence of an ancient post-Miocene land extending over what is now the Mediterranean and past the Azores in the Atlantic [EF’s "Atlantis" theory in "On the connexion between the distribution of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles and the geological changes which have affected their area", Mem. Geol. Surv. G. B. 1 (1846): 336–432].

Glad to hear of JDH’s botanical appointment [with Geological Survey].

Edward Forbes has written about his subsidence doctrine; CD objects to its hypothetical base.

Thanks for Edward Forbes’s letter. Botanical evidence conflicts with parts of his theory but supports others. Is becoming more of a migrationist.

Bentham agrees with JDH on polymorphism.

Describes Infusoria in Rio Gallegos samples.

"Fluthgebiete" means estuary deposit.

Discusses dust samples from Malta. Asks for further samples.

Agrees with JDH about Forbes’s views.

Discusses A. Saint-Hilaire’s lectures and asks on what grounds botanists judge the relative "highness" of plants.

C. G. Ehrenberg wants specimen grasses from Ascension Island.

JDH recognises the existence of "altered states" of continental species in island floras. The botanists’ difficulty in determining a new species is no grounds for dismissing the important question of altered forms.

Will look for Ascension plants for Ehrenberg.

French Galapagos collections confirm JDH’s view that plants arrived from north.

Cannot agree with Forbes on North Atlantic flora.

Botanical definition of "highness" and "lowness" usually means complexity and simplicity.

Some plants, such as aquatic ones, are cleistogamous. Cannot see why they should not be.