Thanks CTW for his letter [125]. "I do not think I ever received a more kind letter than yours or one that gave me so much pleasure.— You ought to have in your mind, the prospect of leaving England for 3 or 4 years before you can understand how to enjoy such a letter from such a person as yourself—". Regarding the voyage, "all is finally settled, & I have sealed away about half a chance of life.— If one lived merely to see how long one could spin out life,—I should repent my choice.— As it is I do not.—"

Thanks CTW for four fungi which have arrived.

Introduces Syms Covington and recommends him for employment in Australia.

Sends detailed report on the prospects for a settlement on the coast of Patagonia, pointing out many problems, and recommending instead the Falkland Islands.

Asks to borrow an old pair of GN’s dissecting scissors so that Weiss & Co. can use it as a model.

Health has been poor.

Has finished MS on pedunculated cirripedes for Ray Society [Living Cirripedia, vol. 1 (1851)].

Returns scissors with thanks.

Young John Lubbock who has a strong taste for dissecting insects would benefit greatly from conversation with GN.

Sends cheque for subscription [£20].

Expresses his strong opinion that Huxley’s paper ["Agamic reproduction and morphology of Aphis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 22 (1858): 193–220, 221–36] should be published.

CD is pleased by BP’s appreciative opinion of Origin. He never intended to claim that he originated the doctrine that species have not been independently created. The only novelty in his work is the attempt to explain how species became modified and how the theory of descent explains large classes of facts. If he has taken anything from BP, he has done so unconsciously. Gives names of those he would have mentioned in any account of authors who maintained that species have not been separately created.

CD greatly admires BP’s Philosophy of creation.

To avoid possible misundertanding of his letter [2654] of that morning, CD wishes to make clear that he did not wish to imply that BP’s essay and the Vestiges of creation were in the same class. The more he thinks of it the more difficult he feels it would be to give a fair account of the authors who have maintained the modification of species. CD finds that he referred to BP’s views in the preface to his larger work [Natural selection], which was replaced by the Origin.

Will be glad to have SPW’s criticisms of Origin.

Discusses his use of terms, "typical" and "specialisation".

Emphasises large body of facts explained by his theory of species.

Sends two letters from G. Lincecum about ants ("perhaps the most marvellous instinct ever recorded") for possible publication. [See Gideon Lincecum, "The habits of the ""agricultural ants"" of Texas", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 6 (1862): 29–31.]

Sends paper to be read ["Sexual forms of Catasetum", Collected papers 2: 63–70].

Asks that referee of his [Catasetum] paper be informed that if it is ordered to be printed he will borrow woodcuts. But if referee thinks fit, he will withdraw it, for almost all will be published in Orchids. He is not willing to spare time to condense it.

CD’s great interest in JS’s work on fertility of Primula crosses.

Thanks for Passiflora trials.

"By no means modify even in slightest degree any result."

CD wishes he had counted rather than weighed Primula seeds.

Requests all parts of Transactions due him.

Asks [Secretary] to list the proper titles of foreign societies of which he is an honorary member; he has mislaid diplomas.

F. Hildebrand, in his recent article [Bot. Ztg. 10 (1866): 73–8], describes what GH showed CD about Indigofera’s irritability.

Asks to have author’s spare copies of F. Müller’s article on climbing plants [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1867): 344] sent to him for forwarding to FM.

Sends J. P. M. Weale’s paper on Bonatea for consideration by Linnean Society [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 470–6].

He had no idea that the double function of an excretory passage had played a part in the history of religion.