Summary

Quotes an extract from a letter from Mr Sanderson of Chislehurst on the disappearance of black or spotted sheep from Australian flocks when the coloured sheep ceased to be of use to man.

Summary

Asks JDH to read the enclosed Memorial, sign it, and send it to T. H. Huxley.

Summary

CD is pleased that EK will answer Butler. Thinks Butler is half insane.

Summary

Responds, with some embarrassment, to JDH’s caution on Frank’s F.R.S. prospects.

Summary

Hensleigh Wedgwood has told CD that land JBI had inquired about will be sold at auction with the house [Trowmer [Tromer!?] Lodge].

Summary

Gives instructions to WED about looking for earthworm activity at Brading.

Mentions James Geikie’s excellent book [Prehistoric Europe (1881)].

Summary

Thanks for agreeing to propose Frank as F.R.S.

Would have enjoyed discussing Island life.

Summary

Asks to see THH on Thursday or Friday to hear about the Wallace affair.

Summary

Thinks Wallace memorial should not be presented to Lord Aberdare, nor to Owen, for signature, but will follow THH’s wishes.

Summary

Comments on TMR’s "Oceanic islands" [Geol. Mag. 8 (1881): 75–7]. Fact that oceanic islands are all volcanic argues for view that no continent ever occupied the oceans. Chalk seemed best evidence of ocean having existed where continent now stands. CD leans to view that continents have occupied present positions since Cambrian.

Summary

The Kovalevskys have been to lunch.

Madame Kovalevsky is greatly interested in GHD’s papers.

Summary

Discusses GJR’s idea of subjecting plants to brief flashes of light.

Hoped to see GJR in London, but was too tired.

Delighted his book Movement in plants has interested GJR.

Asks if GJR has example of dogs calling on each other to go hunting; there is a case half a mile away.

Has heard that Samuel Butler has abused him in his latest book, but he does not intend to look at it.

Summary

Comments on Prehistoric Europe.

Asks JG’s opinion of Daniel Mackintosh’s paper ["Results of a systematic survey of erratic blocks", Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 35 (1879): 425–53].

Comments on loess.

Feels uneasy about streams of stone of Falkland Islands.

Summary

Thanks for report [on potato experiments].

Still has subscription money for JT’s experiments. How much does he need?

Summary

Perhaps you would like to see a very small “tumour” on a lateral branch of the Silver Fur, caused by an Œstrum, as stated (with references) in my Power of Movement in Plants. These tumours are sometimes almost as big as a child’s head. At what age they emit the upright shoot, I do not know.

Summary

Comments on HV’s Über Organbildung im Pflanzenreich: über Wachstumsursachen und Lebenseinheiten [pt 1, 1878].

Mentions paper by his son [Francis Darwin, "The theory of the growth of cuttings, illustrated by observations on the bramble, Rubus fruticosus", J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 18 (1881): 406–19].

Summary

Will not be able to attend the proposed conference and feels no benefit will arise from it.

Summary

Worm-castings from [Roman] ruins at Brading contained bits of tiles or bricks. Obliged for WED’s trouble about Brading castings.

Movement in plants well received in Germany.

Summary

Asks GJA to sign memorial [petitioning Government for pension for Wallace].

Summary

Asks Flower to sign document [application for pension for Wallace].