Summary

Admires Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions, but it will discourage investigation of distribution.

Mentions Oswald Heer’s proposed map of Atlantis.

Discusses extinction of plants caused by the glacial era. Migration of plants and animals during glacial period.

Encourages CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].

Comments on unfriendly reviews. Asks CL’s opinion about including a reply to reviewers in next edition of Origin.

Summary

Hears Origin [2d ed.] was sold out. Next edition will need a good many alterations. Asks JM to provide him with a copy of the second revised U. S. edition. He wants to see how his long corrections look in type.

Summary

Welcomes JDH home from Middle Eastern expedition.

Summary

JD’s letter of 17 Sept about Leschenaultia not seeding is surprising. CD’s experiments point to insects which, though perhaps not indispensable to their fertilisation, are useful to it. Would like to know whether the flower of Leschenaultia is visited by bees or other insects.

JD’s offer to send seeds of Distylis and the other genus is of greatest possible interest.

Summary

Thanks for interesting letter which confirms belief that a good observer is a good theorist.

He is glad to hear that HWB, with his wide knowledge of natural history, has anticipated CD in many respects and agrees with the Origin.

Has been thoroughly attacked, especially by entomologists – J. O. Westwood, T. V. Wollaston, and Andrew Murray.

Glad HWB is writing on "equatorial refrigeration"; CD expresses his belief in north to south migration during glacial period.

Summary

Has had a good letter from Robert McDonnell. Thinks he will be converted in time.

Impatient to see first number of Natural History Review.

Murray wants a new edition of Origin immediately.

Summary

Has found some funny evidences of transmutation in Cliffortia. Sketches gradual passage "from very unlike to same" – e.g., from three-leafed form to two-leafed.

Summary

Dr Hooker has given him CD’s memorandum on the fly-catcher.

Copies out extract from Curtis’ Botanical Magazine [On Apocynum androsæmifolium, 8 (1794): tab.]: 280 and gives a further reference in Erasmus Darwin’s The loves of plants [1789]. Suggests that they look at Apocynum.

Summary

Comments on CL’s advice not to reply directly to reviews.

Describes work on his Drosera manuscript.

Work delayed on his "larger book" [Variation].

Comments at length on the evolutionary significance of Robert McDonnell’s investigations ["On an organ in the skate", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 57–60].

Summary

CL has calculated that elevation and subsidence of certain formations in Sweden and Norway take place at the rate of 2 1/2 feet per century. He now proposes to estimate the age of a bed by including a conjecture that pauses occur in the oscillations in the ratio of 4 periods of stasis to one of movement. Applying this formula to Scotland, the last subsidence and re-elevation would be 590,000 years and the age of the beds with human implements would be 20,000 years.

Summary

Discusses elevation and subsidence of Europe.

Summary

Has reread AG’s third Atlantic Monthly article. It is admirable, but CD cannot go as far as AG on design.

Mentions other opinions and reviews of Origin.

Relates some experiments on Drosera showing its extreme sensitivity; requests some observations on orchids.

Summary

Preparing new edition of Origin and asks for JDH’s corrections and criticisms.

Summary

Encourages CD’s work in vegetable physiology.

Ascending the Lebanon JDH noted limits of plant distribution as CD requested: lower limits of a genus sharper than upper. Sharpness of boundaries related to a plant’s moisture requirement.

Impressed by "sporadic" distribution at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

Summary

Praise for a paper on the Entomostraca by Lubbock (Lubbock 1862). Thanks for the compliment paid to the Origin and for his general comments.

Summary

Satisfied that CD finds his conjectured rate of elevation and long periods of stasis reasonable, even if these periods cannot be estimated. Explaining upheaval by subterranean lava flow makes these pauses plausible. Suspects that mountainous areas move more than lowland and coastal areas. General upheavals or subsidence in Europe in glacial period are unlikely. Believes with Jamieson that there was glacial action in Scotland before its submergence and that it was equally mountainous then. Subterranean upheaval visits different countries by turn. Horizontal Silurian strata must have been submerged and upheaved. Rest has always been the general surface character. Believes, however, that the quantity of late Tertiary movement is against CD’s belief in the constancy of continents and oceans: perhaps since the Miocene period, but not since the Cretaceous.

Summary

Asks how soon he must send proofs [of Origin, 3d ed.] to printer. His corrections would not take more than three weeks. The longest job will be to glance over the endless reviews to guide him in his corrections.

Summary

Sends the tithes.