Summary

Thanks for account of his work. Cannot read Dutch, but son has translated it.

Thanks for album sent by PH’s countrymen.

Summary

Thanks for EK’s book [Werden und Vergehen (1876)].

Regrets he cannot write for EK’s journal, but his son, Francis, may do so.

Suggests EK as editor urge on readers [of Kosmos] the investigation of the causes of variability; why, for instance, do wild Pampas cattle change colour when domesticated? Thinks experiments and observations on recently domesticated animals and cultivated plants would throw light on the subject.

Summary

Had found out his error [use of "cleistogenous" for "cleistogamous" in Cross and self-fertilisation] some timeago.

Is now writing on cleistogamic flowers [for Forms of flowers (1877)], and, with it, will have worked up all his old materials on plants. JVC will then have a rest from his labours of translation.

Summary

Thanks for Chauncey Wright’s work [Philosophical discussions (1877)].

Gladstone visited recently, and they discussed the future role of the United States as a world power.

Summary

CD counters Thiselton-Dyer’s objection to protoplasmic filaments of Dipsacus protruding beyond cell-wall, as Frank’s paper claims, by citing white "blood cells passing through vessels".

Has received Moseley’s collection of photographs.

Summary

Asks EH to make a small correction in his translation [of Cross and self-fertilisation].

Summary

Warm thanks for CC’s letter. CD needed no word from CC to be convinced of his high opinion.

Summary

CD apologises for his burdensome request of Oliver.

Criticises JDH’s notice on Forsythia, which JDH said was dioecious. Forsythia sent to CD from Kew was heterostylous.

Summary

Asks FD to mollify Daniel Oliver and assure him that CD asks "only for what I wd. give my life’s blood for".

Summary

Thanks GBE for his essay on the placenta [Sull’unità del tipo anatomico della placenta nei mammiferi e nell’umana specie (1877)].

Summary

Sends autograph as requested.

Summary

Enquiring about cleistogamic flowers of Oxalis.

Summary

Sends an informal title-page [for Orchids, 2d ed.].

Appreciates the condolences for Frank [on death of his wife, Amy].

Summary

Thanks for the reviews, particularly the one in the Times.

CD will be pleased to receive Mr Wallace.

Summary

Discusses possible cleistogamic flowers in Oxalis.

Summary

Has received the sheets of EG’s Spanish translation of Origin. Regrets that he cannot undertake to read them because of his health, over-work, and having forgotten much of the language. What he has read seems clearly expressed.

Summary

Leucosmia burnettiana is in all probability dimorphic. Thinks Gilia is truly heterostyled and Phlox subulata was, perhaps, once heterostyled. Has good evidence of heterostyly in 39 genera from 14 families.

Summary

CD doubts that he will be able to do much more that is new, but cannot bear idleness. Has great amount of material on variation under nature, but so much has been published since the appearance of the Origin that he doubts he has the power of mind to render the mass into a digested whole.

Summary

Evidence for inheritance of constitutional diseases like scrofula so good that it seems rash to breed tainted animal.

Experiments given in Cross and self-fertilisation show that evil of inbreeding follows from near relations possessing closely similar constitution.

Size and vigour increased by breeding plants and animals from ancestors that lived some generations under different conditions of life.

Summary

Regrets he cannot permit his name to be used to support WSK’s aquarium project. If WSK decides to set up an aquarium solely for scientific purposes he would consider subscribing.