Summary

Sends his thanks for a kind letter; he has copied out the last sentence of the Origin.

Summary

CD continues to have trouble reconciling the Veitch’s names for Bignonia plants and Kew names.

Lyell and Falconer called on CD in London.

Summary

Wishes to borrow volumes 1 and 3 of Narrative [vol. 1 by Capt. P. P. King, vol. 3 by CD].

Summary

Did not get appointment to poultry department of the Field; W. B. Tegetmeier has the position.

His lawsuit concluded well but expensive. Thanks CD for aid during his distress; encloses cheque.

Summary

Thanks for a copy of AAL’s Problèmes de la nature 1864 (Problems of Nature; Laugel 1864).

Summary

R. I. Murchison’s address [see 4595] smashes Ramsay’s glacial theory.

JDH defends his view that CD should not answer Kölliker.

Summary

Requests permission, for a friend, to publish extracts of Orchids in German translation.

Summary

Explains that Orchids has been translated into German (Bronn trans. 1862); and that Living Cirripedia can now be purchased at Hardwicke’s, 192 Piccadilly, London.

Summary

Has finished Climbing plants;

resuming work on Variation.

Sends abstract of John Scott’s paper [see 4332].

Has received review of Herbert Spencer but cannot believe AG wrote it unless he has muddled his brains with metaphysics.

Summary

Pleased that Bentham is cautious about Naudin’s view of reversion. CD can show experimentally that crossing of races and species tends to bring back ancient characters.

Suggests Gärtner’s Bastarderzeugung [1849] be translated

and that Oliver review Scott’s Primula paper [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 8 (1865): 78–126] for a future issue of Natural History Review.

Is working on Variation.

Summary

Inquires which nurserymen near Edinburgh cultivate coloured primroses and cowslips. Wants to repeat John Scott’s remarkable experiments.

Summary

Rejoices that CD is beginning "the book of books", Variation.

Suggests that changes in colour of pollen, stigma, and corolla, as Scott reports in his Primula paper, may be related to changes in the insects required for pollination.

Supports Gärtner translation by Ray Society.

Comments on recent addresses by Lyell [Rep. BAAS 34 (1864): lx–lxxv], Bentham [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 8 (1864): ix–xxiii], and Murchison [Rep. BAAS 34 (1864): 130–6].

Summary

CD’s views go hand-in-hand with those of Ludwig Büchner.

He requests an autograph for a friend.

Summary

Glad that Oliver is to review John Scott’s paper in the Natural History Review (Scott 1864a). Apologises that his enclosed references (now missing) are so paltry.

Summary

Reports on personalities at the Bath meeting of BAAS [Sept 1864].

Summary

Explains several monstrous flowers sent by CD.

Summary

CD sends thanks for MTM’s note on monsters. Adds comment on MTM’s point that some species become monstrous more frequently than others.

Summary

Thanks for autograph.

Summary

Does not know an Edinburgh nurseryman who can supply the cowslips and primroses CD wants; will try to get them from the Botanic Garden.

Hears from Hooker that CD is also examining Lythrum.

Summary

Pleased with news of BAAS meeting

and Scott’s possible position as Thomas Anderson’s curator.

Suggests Wallace is due for a Royal Medal.

Agrees with JDH’s criticism of Lyell’s address [see 4614].

Bentham’s Linnean Society address treats continuity of life in a vague non-natural sense.

Rereading his old MS [Natural selection] CD is impressed with work he had already done.

Writing Variation much harder than Climbing plants.

Encloses request to JDH to propose, or suggest on his behalf, that the Ray Society publish a translation of C. F. von Gärtner’s Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (1849).