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

Has given CD’s name to a species of Abutilon found by Fritz Müller.

Pleased at Henrietta [Darwin]’s engagement.

Summary

Studying moraines.

On Lubbock’s book [see 4860], and Lyell’s apology. Recapitulates whole affair.

W. E. H. Lecky [Rise of rationalism in Europe (1865)] and other reading.

Spencer’s observations are wrong on umbellifers, his reasoning partially right.

Natural History Review is all but defunct.

Summary

Huxley has shown him the jaws of an Anoplotherium brought from the Gallegos by R. O. Cunningham.

Saw Hallett’s wheat crops at Brighton; results of his selection very striking.

Huxley is assembling his Darwiniana papers for republication.

Has written a crushing reply to Richard Congreve ["The scientific aspects of positivism", Fortn. Rev. n.s. 5 (1869): 653–70] and JDH feels "infantine" beside him.

Comments on Sabine’s being offered and accepting K.C.B.

Summary

Sends a communication [missing] from Gov. J. H. Lefroy of Bermuda.

Summary

Charmed by Huxley’s letter of appreciation [8873].

Lady Lyell’s sudden death.

Summary

Thinks the Huxley fund should be done. Difficulty will be getting him to accept it.

Summary

Left his box of plants in dog-cart [on his visit to Down].

Summary

JDH half through Origin. High praise for facts and reasoning.

Lyell told JDH his criticisms: small matters JDH did not appreciate.

Reactions of G. Bentham, J. S. Henslow, and C. C. Babington.

Summary

B. D. Jackson’s plan for new Steudel Nomenclator approved. JDH asks for CD’s cheque.

Summary

Hopes to get afternoon train from Victoria.

Woolner comes on Sunday morning.

Summary

JDH on John Scott.

Curious about the rationale of pollen prepotence.

Working on variation in New Zealand flora.

Summary

Describes plans for travel in Morocco with George Maw and John Ball.

Has not yet read Descent.

Summary

Forwards a letter from H. W. Bates to JDH announcing HWB’s appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.

Summary

Had it not been for CD, JDH would never have written such papers as his one on Arctic flora. The "evulgation" of CD’s views is the purest pleasure he derives from them.

He too is staggered that Greenland ought to have been depopulated during the glacial period. Absence of Caltha is fatal to its re-population by chance migration.

Summary

William [Hooker] is in first division of matriculation list of London University.

Other family news.

No news on Ayrton affair. Ayrton has taken staff appointments out of JDH’s hands.

Asks whether CD knows about Zizania aquatica – can hardly believe it is an annual.

Summary

JDH hopes Thiselton-Dyer does not discourage Frank’s investigation of insectivorous plants.

Preparing new editions of botany text-books.

His marriage is set for August.

Summary

The appetite of Nepenthes for hard-boiled egg is prodigious.

Summary

Goes to N. Wales with Huxley.

Wishes to borrow Duke of Argyll’s Reign of law.

The BAAS Presidential Address [Rep. BAAS 38 (1868): lviii–lxxv] – his unhappiness about it; history of botany requires too much reading.

Smith will supply notes on Euryale.

Summary

Does not give much for botanical results of Round Island, but the zoology is wonderful.

Lyell’s new book [The student’s elements of geology (1870)]. Urges Lyell to make it Elementary principles.

Grove is disgusted with CD for being disquieted by William Thomson: "Take another dose of Huxley’s penultimate address to Geol. Soc." [Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 25 (1869): 28–53].