Summary

Thanks for reply to queries.

Requests that a wild rock-pigeon be sent. Have they been domesticated as William Macgillivray says [History of British birds (1837) 1: 275–84; see also Variation 1: 185n.]?

Is rabbit wild in Shetlands?

LE’s information on drifted trees adds an archipelago to his list.

Requests information on variation in domesticated Shetland animals;

bones of large quadrupeds in peat.

Summary

Sorry he cannot remember where S. Filippe [San Felipe?] is.

Doubts that bones of ox, sheep, and horse could have been deposited in guano [on coast of Chile], but they would be worth examination.

[Tipped in copy of Origin (1866) with CHM’s bookplate.]

Summary

Variation to be published at end of month.

Dimorphism and self-sterility.

Seed dissemination in Adenanthera.

Summary

Thanks for Agassiz’s Lectures. Lyell does not believe a word about glacial action of any kind in lowlands of Brazil. Agassiz’s view of glacial movement has been given up by physicists.

Summary

Thanks WED for a present.

Discusses the Duke of Argyll’s Reign of law [1867].

Is busy revising proofs [of Variation].

Summary

On the Duke of Argyll and a review of his Reign of law.

Asa Gray’s theological view of variation. God’s role in formation of organisms; JDH’s view of Providence.

Insular and continental genera.

Owen on continuity and ideal types

and on bones of Mauritius deer.

On man.

Summary

Response to ARW’s "Creation by law", especially the Angraecum sesquipedale and the predicted Madagascar moth.

ARW’s argument on beauty strikes CD as good.

Wishes ARW had made more clear the assumption of the reviewer [in North Br. Rev.] that each variation is a strongly marked one.

The Duke of Argyll’s argument on beauty is not candid.

Summary

Gives up plan to have Haeckel’s Generelle morphologie translated.

His big book [Variation] has gone to printer. Thinks of adding a chapter on man.

Will order Duke of Argyll’s book [Reign of law (1867)].

"Nature never made species mutually sterile [by selection]; nor will man.–"

Summary

Thanks for CV’s Mémoire sur les microcéphales [1867]. Curious how CD and CV have come to similar conclusions about atavism.

Summary

Thanks for facts on orchids.

Friedrich Hildebrand’s new book on fertilisation of plants [Die Geschlechten-Vertheilung bei den Pflanzen (1867)].

CD correcting proofs of Variation.

FM likes Ernst Haeckel’s book [Generelle Morphologie (1866)].

Summary

Has had no less than seven grasses germinate from locust dung sent by JPMW.

JPMW’s paper on Bonatea is being printed by Linnean Society. [See J. P. M. Weale, "Structure and fertilisation of the genus Bonatea", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 10 (1869): 470–6.]

Refers to Lyell’s new edition of Principles [10th ed., 2 vols. (1867–8)].

Summary

Discusses the Duke of Argyll’s book [Reign of law (1867)].

Cites his own views on diversity of structure and beauty.

Encloses letter from Wallace. Sexual selection: evidence advanced by Wallace.

Discusses correlation of growth.

Comments on article in the North British Review [by Fleeming Jenkin].

Discusses the evidence from physics on the age of the earth.

[Four pages of the final letter are missing, but the draft is complete.]

Summary

Self-sterility in orchids.

Growth differences in plants raised from self- and cross-fertilised seed.

Summary

Discusses transport of frog spawn and young molluscs by birds.

Summary

The date-palm seed case is important for Pangenesis.

Reports experiments on pollination of Ipomoea.

"Insular floras": A. Murray’s paper in Gardeners’ Chronicle is poor.

John Scott’s work on acclimatisation of plants.

The anomaly of the Azores flora on the migration theory.

Summary

He had no idea that the double function of an excretory passage had played a part in the history of religion.

Summary

Sends Fritz Müller’s address; has sent him Insular floras [pamphlet].

Summary

Admires his paper ["On the credibility of Darwinism", J. Trans. Victoria Inst. 2 (1867): 39–62, and discussion 63–125].

Ridicules William H. Ince and Admiral FitzRoy on their naive ideas about Noah’s ark.

Summary

Thanks for copy of HS’s First principles [? 2d ed. (1867)].

Comments on HS’s Principles of biology [1864, 1867].

Summary

Will be pleased to receive FCG’s paper. Already has that of [G. R.] Crotch. Encourages further independent work.