Summary

Thanks FTK for telling him of Jahn’s work [see 9719], of which CD had not heard. It would have been of greatest use in writing Descent.

Summary

Answers correspondent’s questions on his birth date and when he began work on origin of species.

Summary

Encloses MS by A. R. Wallace. CD has been forestalled. " . . . if Wallace had my MS sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract!" Wallace does not say if he wishes CD to publish MS, but CD will offer to send it to journal.

Summary

Origin of Antarctic brash ice.

Further on case of Lycopodium: does JDH know any genera of plants whose species are variable in one continent but not in another? Discussion on variations between floras as regards species richness, and factors affecting geographical distribution. On species, CD expects "that I shall be able to show even to sound naturalists that there are two sides to the question of the immutability of species; – that facts can be viewed and grouped under the notion of allied species having descended from common stocks". Mentions books and papers for and against species mutability. CD believes past absurd ideas arose from no one’s having approached subject on side of variation under domestication.

Would like to see Clarke’s paper

and would welcome visit from JDH.

Summary

He is no longer able to answer any of the correspondent’s questions concerning corals.

Places "much trust" in J. D. Dana.

Summary

Thanks WL for his MS on coral and suggests that it be sent to the Geological Society for printing or preserving in the archives.

Comments on his and WL’s bad health and recalls WL’s past kindness to him.

Summary

Congratulates CL on finding Arctic shells.

Comments on paper by E. B. Hunt ["On the origin, growth, substructure and chronology of the Florida reef", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 35 (1863): 197–210].

Mentions J. D. Dana’s health.

George Bentham’s statement on species [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1863): xi–xxix].

Praises Bates’s book [Naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)].

Summary

CD in utter confusion about differences between J. O. Westwood and HWB on division of certain insects. Asks if HWB will homologise certain families for him, telling him which terms would be most generally understood.

Asks also about differences on sound-producing organs of Achetidae Gryllidae.

Summary

HES’s arguments are of great weight, but CD cannot yet bring himself to reject well-known names for obscure ones. Sends four cases that he thinks will stagger HES. Cites his problems in classifying cirripedes. CD cannot bear to give new names, yet may do wrong to attach old ones. Not one species is correctly defined. The harm done by "species mongers".

Summary

Sends paper on erratic boulders [Collected papers 1: 145–63] to the Society. Has taken two months to complete it because of illness.

Summary

Heartened that tabulations of small and large genera done in different ways yield good results. JDH has done some tabulations but has not followed CD’s method of getting equal numbers of small and large genera.

Summary

Discusses foliation and cleavage. Comments on dip of cleavage laminae in mountains. Mentions views of Sedgwick and Studer. Suggests reading C. L. von Buch [Travels through Norway and Lapland (1813)] "as an amusement". Praises views of William Hopkins. Suggests reading paper by H. D. Rogers ["On cleavage of slate-strata", Edinburgh New Philos. J. 41 (1846): 422–3)]. Comments on the paper.

Summary

Sends enclosed order for two bottles [of unspecified chemical].

Summary

Sends elephant tooth from Africa. Suggests it may be interesting in light of his [mistaken] memory of Cuvier’s opinion about tusk brought from Peru by Humboldt.

Summary

Sends rock specimen for W. H. Miller. Asks JSH to see whether there is any geology in P. B. Webb and Sabin Berthelot, Histoire naturelle des Îles Canaries [1835–50]. Finds his work on geology growing so large that it will take more than one volume and asks whether this will make publication aid more difficult.

Has accepted Secretaryship of the Geological Society.

Will not come to Cambridge because "as long as I continue well I cannot bear to leave my work for half a day".

Summary

[Written on CD’s annotated copy of a pamphlet reprint of CM’s review of Coral reefs.] CD asks CM to return the pamphlet to him.

Summary

Reports some details of the geological tour he took with Sedgwick in North Wales in 1831. Recalls how neither he nor Sedgwick saw the obvious signs of past glaciation.

Summary

Asks whether Allegheny Mountains are sufficiently continuous so that plants could travel from north to south along them.

Hopes AG’s work on geographical distribution is progressing, as he has questions on plants common to Europe which do not range up to Arctic.

Are intermediate varieties less numerous in individuals than the varieties they connect?

Summary

Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.

Summary

For his work on dimorphism, CD asks WAL if he can send roots of two forms of Epilobium angustifolium. He doubts that they are reciprocally connected like the two forms of Primula, but will try the experiment.