Summary

Is in a mess with his correspondence and will get no assistance before 1 April.

Has agreed to give an address on the Darwinian theory at Nottingham [meeting of BAAS].

Summary

A report on his somewhat improved health.

Summary

Lyell wants to see JDH’s last letter [the part on glacial periods]. Lyell full of concern about astronomical causes of heat and cold on the globe.

Encloses letter from John Scott.

Summary

Thanks CL for Hooker’s letter.

Discussion of Hooker’s views on glacial action and temperature with specific reference to S. America.

His squabbles with Hooker on transport of seeds via water currents,

temperate plants, and preservation of tropical plants during cooler period.

Expresses interest in seeing Agassiz’s letter.

Summary

Refers to enclosure from Asa Gray

with whom he can talk calmly now that war is over. North had no right to resort to bloodshed.

Startled by CD’s attendance at Royal Society soirée.

Has asked E. B. Tylor to make up questions for consuls and missionaries, through whose wives a lot of most curious information [for Descent?] could be obtained.

Tying umbilical cord has always been a mystery to JDH.

John Crawfurd’s paper on cultivated plants is shocking twaddle ["On the migration of cultivated plants in reference to ethnology", J. Bot. Br. & Foreign 4 (1866): 317–32].

R. T. Lowe back from Madeira.

Summary

Regrets that JvH is not on list of candidates for Royal Society. This year the Council of Royal Society is extraordinarily deficient in natural historians and geologists. Thinks JvH is sure to be elected another year.

Summary

Sorrow about Mrs Langton. Has been haunted by death these six or eight years. Now cannot bear to look at children asleep in bed – a sight he once thought the loveliest thing in creation.

Summary

Orders Richard Owen’s Anatomy of vertebrates [1866–8],

subscribes to Annals and Magazine of Natural History,

and orders three back numbers of Medical Times and Gazette.

Summary

Drosera and Erica massoni have been sent.

Had heard of Agassiz’s theory but not that CD’s theory had raised it.

JDH wrote the article on A. Murray.

Frankland’s lecture too much for him.

Summary

In despair: has lost his copy of Verlot’s memoir on variations of flowers [Sur la production et la fixation des variétés (1866)]. Has JDH borrowed it?

Summary

More on continental extension vs transport [or migration] hypothesis. New questions raised. On Madeira, why were insects and plants changed so much, birds hardly at all?

Erratic boulders of the Azores.

Summary

Reference to description of Begonia phyllomaniaca.

Thanks for the explicit account of Pangenesis. Thinks he now follows CD’s ideas but Pangenesis is very difficult and speculative.

Oliver has lost his little girl.

Summary

AG’s second article on Climbing plants [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 41 (1866): 125–30].

Fritz Müller’s observations on Rubiaceae.

New edition [4th] of Origin.

Summary

Scarlet seed is Adenanthera pavonina. JDH’s suggestion on how disseminated.

On Herbert Spencer, "all oil no bone – a thinking pump", but his paper on sap and wood [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 405–30] is good science. His refusal to bring a specimen for analysis when confronted by JDH.

Bentham and Martin disagreement.

Speculations on New Zealand flora.

Albert Günther’s paper on fishes on each side of Isthmus of Panama [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1866): 600–4].

On the quantity (bulk and weight) of organic life [matter].

Summary

Analysis of New Zealand flora; proportion of indigenous annuals.

Uniform climates are poor in species.

Evergreen and deciduous vegetation: relationship to flora and fauna.

Summary

Gives CD some references to papers.

Reports improvement in his wife’s health.

Summary

Reviewing C. V. Naudin’s article ["Nouvelles recherches sur l’hybridité dans les végétaux", Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) 4th ser. 19 (1863): 180–203] for Popular Science Review [5 (1866): 304–13]. Requests references.

Proposes to visit Down on Easter weekend.

Summary

Requests copy of paper read at Amsterdam Horticultural Congress, on graft-hybrids like that of Cytisus adami [see 5018].

Summary

Is sending some plants and seeds to JDH.

Thanks Mrs Hooker for telling him of a life of his grandfather [Erasmus Darwin] of which he had not heard.

Summary

Answers JDH’s questions on connection of SE. England and continent,

on the effect of breaking the Isthmus of Panama,

and on Madeira flora as remnant of Tertiary flora.

Cautionary remarks for JDH on his "Insular floras" speech, designed to strengthen case of "occasional migration" theory.