Summary

A letter of reference for Syms Covington.

Summary

Thanks SC for box of specimens [of cirripedes].

Often wishes he had settled in one of the colonies because of opportunities for his children.

Summary

Thanks him for specimens collected.

Comments on JED’s voyage [on H.M.S. Terror, 1839–43].

Mentions activities of old Beagle crew.

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CD’s health has been poor owing to hard work [on Natural selection]. He has to treat of every branch of natural history, which is beyond his strength.

Summary

Reports on developments in recent years, his father’s death, his own poor health, publications, and work on barnacles. Asks SC to collect some specimens, if he lives near the sea.

News of FitzRoy and B. J. Sulivan.

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Discusses the affairs of the late Edward Evans for whom CD and EAD are trustees.

Has got CD’s [Copley] Medal, "it is rather ugly to look at, & too light to turn into candlesticks".

Summary

PGK’s letter stirred memories of their old days in the Beagle.

Gives news of his work on cirripedes. Would like to examine Scalpellum papillosum of King from Patagonia if PGK’s father has a duplicate in his collection.

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Discusses the possibility of a banking job for William [Darwin]; wishes to meet JL to discuss the prospects.

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Is concerned about the education of his boys and is undecided between Rugby and Bruce Castle schools; is inclined toward the latter, but afraid to experiment on so important a subject.

Reports on his pear-trees.

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Introduces Syms Covington and recommends him for employment in Australia.

Summary

Thanks SC for his interesting account of the state of the colony. SC was wise to settle there where his sons have much better prospects.

Has finished his book on barnacles [1854]. Royal Medal awarded him chiefly for this work.

Asks SC whether he has observed any odd imported breeds of poultry, for his work on variation of species.

Summary

Urges AG to generalise from his observations on the flora of the northern U. S.

Expected to find separation of sexes in trees because he believes all living beings require an occasional cross, and none is perpetually self-fertilising. The multitude of flowers of a tree would be an obstacle to cross-fertilisation unless the sexes tended to be separate.

The Leguminosae are CD’s greatest opposers; he cannot find that garden varieties ever cross. Could AG inquire of intelligent nurserymen on the subject?

Thanks AG for information on protean genera; much wants to know whether their great variability is due to their conditions of existence or is innate in them at all times and places.

Summary

Comments on SC’s trip to the gold diggings. CD is most interested in Australia and reads every book about it that he can find. Sends news of former Beagle shipmates FitzRoy, Sulivan, Mellersh, and of Fuegia [Basket].

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Writes of WED’s progress at school and events at home.

Discusses pigeons, with which he is "getting on splendidly".

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On papilionaceous flowers and CD’s theory that there are no eternal hermaphrodites. Connects this theory to absence of small-flowered legumes in New Zealand and the absence of small bees as pollinators.

Summary

J. C. Wickham, B. J. Sulivan, and Arthur Mellersh visited a fortnight ago.

Oldest son [William] now a banker.

Sends photograph.

Health too bad to see anyone at present. Rarely sees FitzRoy.

Summary

Congratulates and "condoles" with WDF on a tenth child.

On education, he has not had courage to break away from "the old stereotyped stupid classical education"; has sent William to Rugby.

The first Ray Society volume [Living Cirripedia] is finished.

Has joined in a society to prosecute violators of the act against use of children in climbing chimneys.

Summary

On FitzRoy’s suicide.

The Lyell–Ramsay disagreement [on formation of lakes?].