Summary

Thanks JVC for correcting his blunder on spelling of "Arrotino" [see Expression, p. 184]. "No Frenchman has a greater tendency to spell all proper names wrongly than I have."

Summary

Asks CD to decide which translator he would prefer for Variation. JVC frankly thinks Carl Vogt not the best man to introduce CD to the German public, though he has a greater name than JVC.

Vogt now preaches materialism in its most absurd form.

Summary

Sends revision of vol. 1 [of Variation]. Advance sale at auction sold 1200 copies, to CD’s great surprise. Publication delayed by index.

Summary

JVC is having difficulty in translating the names of dogs [in Variation]. Also asks CD for help with names of pigeons.

Summary

Would be great honour to have CV translate Variation, but Schweizerbart has arranged for J. V. Carus to do it.

Has read CV’s Lectures on man [1864] with extreme interest.

Summary

Answers queries concerning errata in Coral reefs.

All copies of Volcanic islands are sold. Smith, Elder & Co. want to bring out a new edition, but CD is resolved not to look at a single proof.

Summary

Thanks for errata in Insectivorous plants.

Sends spare copies of his papers, but thinks several are not worth publishing.

Has only one copy, which he will lend JVC, of the best one, on "Erratic boulders of South America" [Collected papers 1: 145–63].

Has not sent "Parallel roads of Glen Roy" [Collected papers 1: 87–137], as he is sure he was wrong.

Summary

Thanks JVC for his biography [of CD].

Has almost finished first proofs of Variation.

Has difficulty in answering JVC’s queries about dogs because of differences in German names and breeds. Refers him to A. E. Brehm’s Illustrirtes Thierleben [1868] and, on pigeons, to Gottlob Neumeister’s book [Das Ganze der Taubenzucht (1837)].

Hopes JVC is not discouraged by first volume. Thinks second will be more interesting.

Summary

Does not care which photograph is engraved. Hopes to get specimens of Eozoon canadense for J. V. Carus.

Summary

The pages [of Descent] CD wishes to correct are not yet printed.

JVC’s work on the translation has been interrupted by illness.

Summary

Asks JVC if he can provide introductions in Leipzig and Dresden for his son George.

Has not yet received any revised sheets of Descent [2d English ed.].

Summary

Struck by singular clarity of EH’s Generelle Morphologie. Remarks on various authors seem too severe. Severity leads the reader to take the side of the attacked person.

Making slow progress in correcting Variation.

Summary

Weisse of Stuttgart is keen to publish a translation of the book on which CD is working [Variation].

Summary

Asks for specimen [of Eozoon] for J. V. Carus of Leipzig.

Summary

CD is delighted that JVC will undertake translation of Variation.

Agrees with JVC’s opinion of Haeckel’s book [Generelle Morphologie (1866)]. CD believes it is bad policy for Haeckel to speak so positively about a disputed theory [i.e., CD’s] and particularly regrets the severity of EH’s criticisms of other authors.

Summary

Cites a misprint in Orchids.

Asks how long Forms of flowers will be, and publication date.

Summary

Discusses need for cross-fertilisation in Geranium.

Hooker begins to doubt whether Drosophyllum so closely allied to Drosera.

Summary

Schweizerbart anxious to get Variation sheets for German translation. Hopes he has found a good indexer in W. S. Dallas.

Summary

Comments on additional printing of Expression. Complains about poor quality of plates.

Summary

Gives an account of his publication plans for his and Ernst Krause’s Erasmus Darwin.

CD has never even dreamed of publishing his own autobiography.

Is now working, with Francis, on plant movements.