Summary

Has done extensive plant hybridisation: strawberry, raspberry, Rhododendron.

Summary

Thanks CD for second issue of Variation.

Is glad CD is satisfied with his translation of Piderit.

Will not start on Müller [Für Darwin] until CD has communicated with the author.

Summary

Enjoyed his visit to Down.

Summary

Working on "Insular floras" lecture for BAAS Nottingham meeting [see 5135].

Puzzled at distribution of Madeiran and Canaries plants and insects.

Supports Forbes’s Atlantis hypothesis [see 956], which he has reread and to which he will allude.

Wollaston disappointing on Madeiran insects.

Summary

The Lyell–Falconer squabble.

Discusses island vs continental floras and their degree of modification.

Critical of Wallace.

CD’s observations on phyllotaxy.

Summary

Answer to CD’s query on genera and species ranges.

Comments on typical forms.

Preparing first part of Galapagos plants for printing.

Summary

Gynodioecism.

Summary

Evidence of tropical floras continuous since Tertiary cannot fit CD’s position on intermittent cold periods.

Agrees with CD on reversion and latency.

Summary

Sends specimens of Boronia.

Discusses the section on diclinous trees and herbs in CD’s new book [Cross and self-fertilisation, pp. 411–13]. CD’s theory that diclinism preceded hermaphroditism seems confirmed.

Summary

Includes comments about George Bentham’s anniversary address to the Linnean Society with particular notice of the favourable attention to Darwin, except for Natural Selection, and to AG’s essay in the Atlantic Monthly.

He defends [W. B.] Carpenter and [Jeffries] Wyman against [Richard] Owen.

Gossip about scientific honours and other matters.

Summary

Observes Plantago’s out-crossing mechanism.

Observations of style lengths of primroses and cowslips.

Summary

Answers CD’s queries on sexual characters and differences among the Urodela.

Is interested in the relationship of pectoral and pelvic limbs in man and apes and has looked at reptiles and amphibians to find traces of the earlier conditions of the limbs.

Asks whether CD knows any instances of deformities or pathological conditions occurring simultaneously in both sets of limbs.

Summary

Hopes JTM’s health will improve.

Asks for information about crosses of peas.

Summary

Has heard CD is much interested in questions relating to varieties and species. Mentions a case of a seminal variety of Colletia spinosa, described by John Lindley, which appears identical with another wild species of Colletia from S. America. Hopes CD will one day "enlighten us very much" on "the laws of species". There are many different views on the limits of species; M. F. Dunal made 50 species of Solanum which George Bentham considers are all varieties of S. nigrum.

Summary

Observations on Ophrys plants and Thymus vulgaris. Encloses sketch of different forms of T. vulgaris [see Forms of flowers, p. 302].

Summary

Likes JDH’s review of Alphonse de Candolle [Mémoires et souvenirs de A. P. de Candolle (1862)].

Falconer’s article on Lyell ["Primitive man. What led to the question?", Athenæum 4 Apr 1863, pp. 459–60] too severe.

CD has written a letter to the Athenæum "to say, under the cloak of attacking Heterogeny, a word in my own defence" [Collected papers 2: 78–80].

Bates’s Travels [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)] are excellent.

Summary

Thanks JS for orchid paper [Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 7 (1863): 543–50]. JS presents excellent new facts on sterility of orchids.

His argument that coloured primroses are not hybrids is good, as is idea of discovering primrose parentage by breeding for colours.