To J. F. Royle   1 September [1847]

Dear Royle

I return you with very many thanks your valuable work: I am sure I have not lost any slip or disarranged the loose numbers.— I have been interested by looking through the vols, though I have not found quite so much as I had thought possible about the varieties of the Indian domestic animals & plants,¹ & the attempts at introduction have been too recent for the effects, if any, of climate to have been developed. I have, however, been astonished & delighted at the evidence of the energetic attempts to do good by such numbers of people & most of them evidently not personally interested in the result. Long may our rule flourish in India. I declare all the labour shown in these Transactions is enough by itself to make one proud of ones countrymen.—

Once again let me thank you for lending me so valuable a work, & one so evidently useful & well used by you.—

Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin