Sends Asa Gray letter: "nearly as mad as ever in our English eyes".

Bates’s paper is admirable. The act of segregation of varieties into species was never so plainly brought forth.

CD is a little sorry that his present work is leading him to believe rather more in the direct action of physical conditions. Regrets it because it lessens the glory of natural selection and is so confoundedly doubtful.

JDH laid too much stress on importance of crossing with respect to origin of species; but certainly it is important in keeping forms stable.

If only Owen could be excluded from Council of Royal Society Falconer would be good to put in. CD must come down to London to see what he can do.

Falconer’s article in Journal of the Geological Society [18 (1862): 348–69] shows him coming round on permanence of species, but he does not like natural selection.

Sends Lythrum salicaria diagram.

Does not think sermon by E. B. Pusey [see 11763] is worth a reply. HNR may quote CD as saying that Pusey is "mistaken in imagining that I wrote the Origin with any relation whatever to Theology". Pusey’s attack will be powerless to retard belief in evolution.

Spoke too harshly about CD’s involvement in nomenclatural reform.

JDH used to think CD "too prone to theoretical considerations about species", hence was pleased CD took up a difficult group like barnacles. CD’s theories have progressed but JDH not converted. Sikkim has not cleared up his doubts about CD’s doctrines.

Argument with Falconer.

Returns Asa Gray’s letter. Disappointed with Gray. Comments on America. British–American relations.

J. H. Balfour gives Scott excellent character reference, but says he is unfit either to superintend or be subordinate.

Herbert Spencer’s review of J. M. Schleiden is interesting [see 4457].

CD’s photograph looks like J. R. Herbert’s Moses in the fresco in the House of Lords.

JDH is delighted about oxlip, but hybridity does not explain some large patches that are uniform and do not vary towards either cowslip or primrose.

Encloses letter from W. H. Harvey discussing Myosotis sylvatica and the common dandelion.

Recounts row at the Royal Society over exclusion of mention of Origin from Sabine’s address awarding Copley Medal to CD.

Encloses two letters to JDH from James Hector in New Zealand.

Forwards H. T. Stainton letter for reply.

Finds many Cucurbita have tendrils with sticking ends.

The "potentiality of so many organs in plants to play so many parts is one of the most wonderful of your discoveries . . . one day it will itself play a prodigious part in the interpretation of both morphological and physiological facts".

Is disgusted with Sabine’s address [see 4708] because of its mutilation of what JDH wrote.

THH’s slashing leader in Reader ["Science and ""Church policy"" ", 4 (1864): 821] – as usual he destroys all in his path.

Encloses letter from G. H. K. Thwaites with a message for CD [see encl].

Lyell wants to see JDH’s last letter [the part on glacial periods]. Lyell full of concern about astronomical causes of heat and cold on the globe.

Encloses letter from John Scott.

More on Naudin’s hybrid; the wonder lessened slightly.

JDH’s view that insular plants [distantly] related to those of continents are common came to him only after the lecture was in print; has not yet thought it out fully.

Moroccan flora may throw some light on Madeira flora.

Cannot come to Down; John Smith is unwell.

Will go to Paris again at end of month.

Wallace and F. J. H. von Mueller of Victoria are most likely candidates for Royal Society Gold Medal for biology.

Encloses letter from Henry Barkly.

Amazed that Hugo von Mohl and E. M. Fries are not foreign members of Royal Society; Thomson going over the whole matter.

Candolle’s contribution to botany.

Lubbock shocked about Wollaston.

CD’s answer to Greg was capital.

Comments on Variation.

Charles Murchison’s work on Falconer’s Memoirs [Palaeontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer (1868)] and JDH on Falconer.

Pleased to come on 17th.

Is arranging the Aucuba experiment.

Sends some letters for CD’s perusal.

Asks what CD thinks of Huxley’s address [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 25 (1869): xxviii–liii].

Would be glad to have Drosophyllum plants.

Sends enclosure [a letter from Lady Lyell?]. He is choking with vanity.

Is going to send Willy to Mr La Touche in Salop; he brought up young Colenso and Frank Lyell. Some of his friends will think he is sending his son into a nest of young adders!

Sends seeds from R. L. Playfair in Algiers.

F. Delpino writes asking where M. A. Curtis has published physiological observations on Dionaea ["Enumeration of plants growing spontaneously around Wilmington, North Carolina", Boston J. Nat. Hist. 1 (1834–7): 82–140; see Insectivorous plants, p. 301 n.].

Talk with Duke of Argyll on CD’s and Wallace’s views on man.

Details of the JDH–Ayrton–Gladstone imbroglio.

Encloses letter and cheque [from John Scott].

Again in thick of Ayrton matter. Tyndall and Huxley have shown themselves equal to the occasion in grasp of subject, tenacity of purpose, independence, and good-will.

Encloses a letter [from Huxley about his invitation to lecture at Edinburgh]. Has done his best to dissuade Huxley from accepting the burden.

JDH’s depression in bereavement.

FM much gratified by the appearance of Für Darwin translation.

Discusses dimorphism in Rubiaceae.