Summary

Etty [Henrietta Darwin] very ill with diphtheria.

Summary

Reports on results of forcing and other attempts to produce variations in plants. Asks for some seeds.

Is correcting his Linnean Society paper ["On the action of sea-water", Collected papers 1: 264–71].

Summary

Admires Edward Forbes’s theory of continental extensions, but it will discourage investigation of distribution.

Mentions Oswald Heer’s proposed map of Atlantis.

Discusses extinction of plants caused by the glacial era. Migration of plants and animals during glacial period.

Encourages CL’s work [on Antiquity of man (1863)].

Comments on unfriendly reviews. Asks CL’s opinion about including a reply to reviewers in next edition of Origin.

Summary

Sorry to hear of Mrs Hooker’s health and domestic problems. Wishes natural selection had produced neuters who would not flirt or marry.

Will be eager to hear Cameroon results.

Wishes JDH would discuss the "mundane glacial period". Still believes it will be "the turning point of all recent geographical distribution".

Pollen placed for 65 hours on apparent (CD still thinks real) stigma of Leschenaultia has not protruded a vestige of a tube.

"Oliver the omniscient" has produced an article in Botanische Zeitung with accurate account of all CD saw in Viola.

Asa Gray’s "red-hot" praise of Orchids [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 138–51].

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

Thanks for Lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy [1864].

If Owen wrote article on "Oken" [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.] and French work on archetype he never did a baser act [see ML 1: 246 n.].

Bad health lately.

Summary

Asa Gray approves of Orchids; his work on American species confirms CD’s findings.

Summary

Thanks LJ for his book [Observations in meteorology (1858)].

CD has been working on his species book [Natural selection].

Has become dreadfully heterodox on immutability of species.

His work on pigeons: variation under domestication throws the greatest light on variation in a state of nature.

Summary

Discusses domestic affairs.

Is working at the abstract of his book [Origin].

Asks WED to examine birds’ feet for dirt sticking to them, as this may represent a means of seed dispersal across seas.

Summary

Wide-ranging species more "improved" than relics in small areas because they exist in large numbers and thus are subject to intense competition.

His abstract is 330 folio pages long so far.

Summary

Thanks AG for 2d part of "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403].

Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.

Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.

Summary

Can understand EH’s feelings on death of his wife.

CD was impressed by manner in which species in South America are replaced by closely allied ones, by affinity of species inhabiting islands near S. America, and by relation of living Edentata and Rodentia to extinct species. When he read Malthus On population, the idea of natural selection flashed on him.

Agrees with EH’s remarks on Kölliker ["Darwin’sche Schöpfungstheorie", Z. Wiss. Zool. 14 (1864): 174–86].

Asks EH to thank Carl Gegenbaur [for Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere (1864)].

Summary

Sorry to hear of JDH’s household troubles.

Will try to get a couple of flowers of Leschenaultia to send him.

"What a good case that of the Cameroons"; the 4000ft [elevation] is much to CD’s "private satisfaction".

Sends JDH a copy of Orchids.

Summary

Asa Gray writes as if Civil War were a holy war.

J. E. Renan on Jesus [Vie de Jésus (1863)].

Literature on tendrils of Cucurbita is contradictory.

Summary

Asks writer of an article on weeds why he supposes "there is too much reason to believe that foreign seed of an indigenous species is often more prolific than that grown at home?" The point is of interest to CD "in regard to the great battle of life which is perpetually going on all around us". Cites analogous observations by Asa Gray and J. D. Hooker. Does writer know "of any other analogous cases of a weed introduced from another land beating out … a weed previously common in any particular field or farm?"

Summary

CD hopes to have an hour’s talk with CJFB before CD leaves London.

Summary

CD and Hooker suggest Sir John Richardson for Royal Medal. Other suggestions are George Bentham, Joseph Prestwich, Albany Hancock.

Summary

Comments on letter from Georg Hartung to CL dealing with erratic boulders.

Discusses migration of plants and animals.

A letter from Thomas Thomson on heat endured by temperate plants.

Summary

Thanks AG for his criticisms of CD’s views; finds it difficult to avoid using the term "natural selection" as an agent.

Discusses crossing in Fumaria and barnacles.

Has received a naturally crossed kidney bean in which the seed-coat has been affected by the pollen of the fertilising plant.

Finds the rule of large genera having most varieties holds good and regards it as most important for his "principle of divergence".

Summary

CD wishes he could sympathise with Asa Gray’s politics.

Orchids to appear soon.

Pre-glacial Arctic distribution.

Work on floral dimorphism.

High opinion of Buckle as a writer.