Summary

[Recto:] CD defines "aberrant genus".

[Verso:] JDH’s list of families, [presumably] with aberrant genera, and [presumably] the number of species in each genus.

Summary

Congratulates JDH on receipt of Royal Medal.

CD gathering facts on aberrant genera of insects.

Summary

Sends list of aberrant forms of Curculionidae.

Discusses in detail the artificiality of Carl Johan Schönherr’s classification. Sound generalisations about geographical distribution depend on sound classifications. Warns against putting too much faith in current catalogues.

Summary

Regrets he cannot come to hear DS’s paper ["On the structure of Mont Blanc", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 11 (1855): 11–27]. Has a lively interest in the subject.

Edward Forbes has misrepresented his view on foliation and cleavage [Athenæum 30 Sept 1854].

CD is convinced DS’s view will replace Huttonian and Lyellian view of metamorphic schists.

Recommends H. C. Sorby’s paper [probably "On the origin of slaty cleavage", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].

Summary

Fossil leaves from Disko Island.

JDH to begin working out the botanical geography of the polar sea.

Has not forgotten CD’s request on aberrant species.

Has taken a house on Richmond Hill.

Summary

Calculating small number of species in aberrant genera of insects and plants.

Joachim Barrande’s "Colonies", Élie de Beaumont’s "lines of Elevation", Forbes’s "Polarity" make CD despair, as these theories lead to conclusions opposite to CD’s from the same classes of facts.

Summary

Asks JSH to inquire about drift-wood at Kerguelen Land.

Hooker’s observation on similarity of Kerguelen plant species to those of Tierra del Fuego strikes CD as a great anomaly, so he is searching for an answer, "however improbable".

Summary

Requests authoritative information on erratic boulders and marks of glaciers in New Zealand, and especially in southern islands.

Summary

In response to CD’s query, HCW says he cannot supply "any list of species as the flora of a single and sterile soil". Suggests a possible source of information, and provides some figures for Britain, but these apply to diverse soils.

Summary

Sends a count of the number of species of flowering plants and ferns on the islands of Fayal and Flores in the Azores.

Summary

Grief at the death of Edward Forbes.

Summary

George Bentham’s list of aberrant plant genera. JDH appended the number of species in each genus according to E. G. Steudel’s catalogue [Nomenclator botanicus (1840–1)] and according to JDH and Bentham.

JDH speculates on effect of splitting Australia longitudinally on distribution; it becomes an argument for new creations.

Summary

JDH’s contempt for R. I. Murchison.

There is a Cyperus species and a Pteris species endemic to hot volcanoes of Ischia. Why are there no other migrators?