Summary

AG’s review of Joseph Cook ["Lectures on biology", New Englander 37: 100–13].

Encourages CD to work at heliotropism.

Thinks Thomas Meehan is as "rattle-brained" as Joseph Cook.

[A damaged fragment cut from this letter is pinned to 11051.]

Summary

Heterostyly in Linum perenne. Believes the American form may be a distinct species.

Summary

Climbing plants.

Requests seeds of Echinocystis lobata for Hugo de Vries.

Summary

Thanks for AG’s review of Forms of flowers [Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 15 (1878): 67–73].

Thomas Carlyle’s letter about CD was a forgery.

Gives Hermann Müller’s observations on Valeriana dioica.

Is unsure about function of "bloom"; are glaucous plants more or less common in arid parts of U. S.?

Observations on heliotropism.

Thomas Meehan reports that Linum perenne is self-fertile; CD thinks that he has mistaken the species.

Summary

Contraction of plant roots.

Summary

The strongest argument for the existence of God is the intuitive feeling that there must have been an intelligent beginner of the universe; "but then comes the doubt and difficulty whether such intuitions are trustworthy". CD is forced to leave the problem insoluble. "No man who does his duty has anything to fear, and may hope for whatever he earnestly desires."

Summary

Discusses the structure of grass embryos; states differing theories regarding which part of the seed corresponds to the cotyledon.

Summary

Wants some plants for sleep-movement observations. Has almost finished experimental work and must start sorting his notes.

Summary

Sends CD Dr Wood’s lecture on insectivorous plants.

Had no intention of antagonising CD with his observations on Linum; was anxious to account for its apparently different behaviour.

Summary

Invites CD to Kew.

Summary

Thanks for plants and seeds; requests for more to test Sachs’s notion on "bloom".

Summary

CD will call on Tuesday morning.

Summary

CD’s election to the French Academy delights GB. Nationalistic prejudices have at last been overcome; congratulates him on what is now universal adoption of his views.

Summary

Thanks for kind note, would like to meet him.

Summary

Enjoyed seeing HdeV yesterday.

Following the point mentioned by HdeV, CD has observed the difference in corrugation of primary roots in plants exposed to dry and damp soil.

Summary

Botanical evidence is against F. B. White’s origin of St Helena fauna. JDH holds flora is S. African. Since plants must arrive before insects, if fauna is Palearctic then flora survived glacial period. Flora not Miocene since old and relic orders are absent. Suggests S. African west coastal mountains as insects’ origin.

Summary

WTT-D’s statement perverted by Times [4 May 1878, p. 6, on WTT-D’s Royal Institution lectures on vegetable morphology].

S. H. Vines’s work on light inhibition of Phycomyces hyphae ["The influence of light upon the growth of unicellular organs" (1878), Arb. Bot. Inst. Würzburg 2 (1882): 133–47] suggests heliotropism in green plants is independent of, and more primitive than, photosynthesis.

Heliotropism in aerial roots.

Frank Darwin’s work.

Summary

Frank asked to summarise work with CD for use in JDH’s Royal Society address.

Work with A. Gray shows Colorado plants closer to Altai than to E. or W. America.

Work with J. Ball shows Moroccan plants very distinct from nearby Canaries.

JDH on Royal Commission to Paris Exhibition.

Summary

Information on Cyclamen and other plants.

Identification of some plants.

"Bloom".