Summary

Is sending FM’s two letters on climbing plants as a paper to the Linnean Society ["Notes on some of the climbing plants near Desterro, in south Brazil", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1867): 344–9].

Adaptations for pollination in Catasetum.

Summary

Has done nothing since 1 May. Slowly getting better under Bence Jones’s diet.

The Reader has been sold – would regret its failure as a newspaper for general science.

Pangenesis is recovering from shock it received from THH’s criticism.

Summary

AG’s article on climbing plants [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 40 (1865): 273–82] is admirable and complimentary.

Reports Fritz Müller’s observations on climbers.

Experiments on dimorphism with Mitchella and Pulmonaria.

Summary

Discusses self-fertilisation in bee and spider orchids. Asks JTM to conduct experiment.

Comments on plates [see J. T. Moggridge’s contribution to Flora of Mentone and winter flora of the Riviera, including the coast from Marseilles to Genoa London 1866, 1871. Part II dated 1865; Part I, 1866].

Summary

Thanks CD for his photograph.

Sends a paper ["Über das Holz einiger um Desterro wachsender Kletterpflanzen", Botanische Zeitung 24 (1866): 57–60, 65–9].

Believes species of sponge with different mineral spiculae are descended from a form with organic spiculae.

Reports observations on motions of Linum stalks following the sun.

Regards Anelasma as a connecting form between cirripedes and Rhizocephala.

Summary

Thanks for "Climbing plants".

Summary

Thinks Royal Society’s failure to honour W. J. Hooker may be due to small number of botanists on Council.

Interest in H. J. Carter’s papers in Annals and Magazine of Natural History on lower organisms.

On Wallace; anthropology.

H. H. Travers’ paper on Chatham Islands [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9 (1865): 135–44].

W. C. Wells’s paper of 1813 ["Essay on dew", Two Essays (1818)] anticipates discovery of natural selection.

Summary

Asks CD to support his candidacy for Professorship of Zoology at Cambridge. Since he has spent many years travelling, he is not well enough known at the University.

Summary

CD need not apologise for not writing a testimonial for him. He knows comparative anatomy, although he has confined his publication to ornithology. Agrees that with a few members of the University a recommendation from CD would be harmful.

Summary

Requests CD copy out a passage of Origin and autograph it for publication.

Summary

Encloses letter [from A. R. Wallace?] about the Reader.

Wants his opinion of a letter from Fritz Müller on climbing plants.

Summary

Information concerning improvements in the Reader under new sponsorship.

Current reading and work [on pigeons for Ibis 1 (1865): 365–400, and catalogue of his collection of birds].

Book of travels postponed indefinitely.

Summary

Thanks for correcting Fritz Miller’s paper on climbing plants. CD will send it to Linnean Society.

Summary

Returns a paper which he has looked over.

Cannot name the scrap of Strychnos with any certainty.

Summary

On novels he has been reading: Eliot, Richardson, etc.

On Wallace, the Reader, and anthropology.

Summary

Sends Fritz Müller’s paper ["Notes on some of the climbing plants near Desterro, in S. Brazil", J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 9 (1867): 344–9] to be refereed.

Summary

Reports that dogs caught in the act of sodomy have been attacked by their fellows, who mutilate the offender’s genitals.

Gives a description of the nature and occurrence of the wild Bos of Formosa.

Summary

Admiral FitzRoy’s daughters by his first marriage have been left without means. The largest subscription to the fund has been £100.

Summary

How did CD handle his sons’ expenses at Cambridge?

Summary

Bad health during last six months has prevented scientific work.

News of family.