Summary

CD and ED bequeath an annuity of £50 to J. Parslow [the Darwins’ butler].

Summary

Huxley’s capital, witty letter.

Charles Kingsley has written of his interest in "Climbing plants".

Health has been very bad.

Summary

Bad month of sickness. John Chapman’s ice bag on spine.

Does not quite agree with JDH about Lubbock’s plagiarism charges. Lyell’s memory must have failed him.

Summary

Gratified by AG’s praise of "Climbing plants".

Thanks for Specularia seed.

Summary

Falconer’s death haunts him. Personal annihilation not so horrifying to him as sun cooling some day and human race ending.

His health has been wretched.

Masters has written his agreement with CD’s "Climbing plants".

Summary

Reports on progress of ice treatment.

Summary

Is working one hour a day now, on illegitimate seedlings of Lythrum and Primula.

Begins to doubt John Scott’s accuracy about primrose and cowslip.

Does JDH believe in Karsten’s denial of parthenogenesis of Coelebogyne?

Summary

Not surprised at delay of his book [Generelle Morphologie (1866)].

P. M. Duncan taking side of evolution.

Has received paper on Geryonidae ["Über eine neue Form des Generationswechsels bei den Medusen", Monatsber. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1865): 85–94]. Had often speculated on whether such a case ever occurred in nature.

Summary

CD would be proud to be one of EW’s series [Portraits of men of eminence (1863–7)]. If he goes to London in the summer he will call on Mr Edwards [the photographer].

Summary

Agrees with JDH on difference in grief over loss of father and of child. His love of his father.

The Reader.

Politics and science.

Health improved by Bence Jones’s diet.

[Dated "Thursday 27th" by CD.]

Summary

Asks JC to pay him a professional visit at Down to consider whether the ice treatment would apply to his case. Describes his sickness.

Summary

Criticises Duke of Argyll’s address [to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1864)] and demurs on Argyll’s "new birth" theory.

Agrees with CL on beauty.

Enjoyed hearing of Princess Royal’s discussion [on Darwinism].

CD’s illness.

CL’s advice on chapter [of Variation] on dogs was excellent.

Summary

On Lubbock’s plans.

Visited by Antoine Auguste Laugel.

Guessed right on Bentham’s "Planchon".

Much struck by Thomson’s article on nomenclature [see 4812]; importance of this subject.

Sorry best scientists read so little; few read any long papers.

Summary

Hildebrand has sent copy of his paper on Pulmonaria in Botanische Zeitung.

How much should CD contribute to Falconer’s bust?

Oswald Heer on alpine and Arctic floras.

A. R. Wallace on geographical distribution in Malay Archipelago.

Lyell’s new edition of Elements. Wishes someone would do a book like it on botany.

Summary

Has done nothing since 1 May. Slowly getting better under Bence Jones’s diet.

The Reader has been sold – would regret its failure as a newspaper for general science.

Pangenesis is recovering from shock it received from THH’s criticism.

Summary

Hugh Falconer’s death great loss to science.

His own health has been especially bad this last week.

Summary

Believes GM’s reported monstrosity is not rare. Does not believe it resulted from the effect of the imagination of the mother on her offspring.

Summary

Will explain about the so-called hybrids of Lythrum when they meet.

JDH should not be proposed for Copley Medal this year because Royal Society Council has so few naturalists on it.

Summary

Comments on the facsimile of his handwriting made by HK, and points out two errors in the letter press.

Encloses three letters written by Erasmus Darwin, and asks HK to return them to Eliza Meteyard.

Summary

May his son George call for advice on his career?

CD has been ill for past four months.