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

JDH on the Lyell–Lubbock plagiarism controversy. His view of the true cause of Lubbock’s behaviour.

Summary

Will arrive Saturday [4 Mar] on afternoon train.

Summary

Thomas Thomson has gone over Scott’s paper; encloses his conclusions. Not fit for publication in present form. His experiments should have been repeated to resolve his disagreement with Gärtner.

Summary

Recommends J. W. Kayes’ book [History of the Sepoy War, vol. 1 (1864)].

Wife improving.

Glad CD liked Huxley’s letter.

Not an admirer of Kingsley.

Summary

Why botanists will not subscribe to Falconer’s bust with enthusiasm.

Scott has been offered curatorship at Calcutta Botanic Garden.

Summary

Reforms at Kew.

X Club Dinner. H. B. Wilson and J. W. Colenso as guests.

Troubled by Lubbock’s going into Parliament – loss to science.

Has written to Busk.

Sending Botanische Zeitung.

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

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

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

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

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

Hugh Falconer’s death great loss to science.

His own health has been especially bad this last week.

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

Thanks for Thomson’s and JDH’s views on Scott’s paper. Will send it back with advice and explanations.

Summary

Thinks Royal Society’s failure to honour W. J. Hooker may be due to small number of botanists on Council.

Interest in H. J. Carter’s papers in Annals and Magazine of Natural History on lower organisms.

On Wallace; anthropology.

H. H. Travers’ paper on Chatham Islands [J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 9 (1865): 135–44].

W. C. Wells’s paper of 1813 ["Essay on dew", Two Essays (1818)] anticipates discovery of natural selection.

Summary

"Climbing plants" sent off.

Encourages JDH to include notes on gradation of important characters in Genera plantarum or to write a paper on the subject. Has given prominence to gradation of unimportant characters in climbing plants. Believes that it is common for the same part in an individual plant to be in different states. Same may be true of important parts – for example position of ovule may differ.

Two articles in last Natural History Review interested him; "Colonial floras" [n.s. 5 (1865): 46–63]

and "Sexuality of cryptogams" [n.s. 5 (1865): 64–79].

Fact of similarity of orders in tropics is extremely curious. Thinks it may be connected with glacial destruction.

Leo Lesquereux says he is a convert for the curious reason that CD’s books make birth of Christ and redemption by grace so clear to him!

"Not one question [for JDH] in this letter!"

Summary

Roguery at Kew.

Who wrote reviews of Linnean Society’s Transactions, of Planchon, and of subspecies in Natural History Review [Apr 1865]?

Is rereading Origin for second French edition.