Summary

Will come to Down on 25 Sept.

Thanks CD for supplementaries ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56] which he will quote in the British flora [The student’s flora of the British Islands (1870)].

F. A. W. Miquel could not come.

Summary

Asks JDH to consult colleagues learned in physiology for answer to query: when a large piece of bark is removed from a tree, does the bark ever regrow in isolated points [separate] from the growing margin of the surrounding bark? Query bears on Pangenesis and on power of repair in plants.

Summary

JM is about to start a new monthly literary review [the Academy]. Would like to publish in first number a short notice of the new work upon which CD is engaged [Descent].

Summary

Leaflet variation at the tip of Lathyrus stems.

Summary

Wishes JM’s new periodical [the Academy] could have been a weekly so it might kill the Athenæum by a lingering death.

Has drafted a piece [about Descent] but is not pleased with it.

Summary

James Orton, U. S. naturalist, has sent him a tooth from skull of a horse found in Quito, Ecuador in deposits containing Mastodon, etc. JO asked CD to send it to Owen, but, since he does not communicate with Owen, he is sending it to THH.

Summary

Robert Fenn exhibited potatoes at the Horticultural Society which showed general failure of graft-hybrids and provided an example of reversion to a wild Peruvian tuber resulting from cross-fertilisation.

Summary

Sends a list of queries for AG.

Asks whether AG can supply specimens for illustrations [for Descent]. Hopes Mr Ford will do the drawings.

Summary

Thanks CD for the English edition of his brother’s book [Fritz Müller, Facts and arguments for Darwin (1869)]

and for CD’s memoir on orchids ["Fertilization of orchids", Collected papers 2: 138–56].

Summary

Sends notes on variation in plants.

Summary

Mr Ford is attending to CD’s drawings [for Descent].

Death of AG’s wife.

Summary

Time of his arrival.

Will bring bark story with him.

Summary

Thanks for a paper on phyllotaxy.

Summary

Is "astonished & deeply grieved" at loss [of AG’s wife].

Summary

Replies to CD’s queries on sexual habits and differences in fish and lizards.

Summary

Thanks AR for specimens and notes. Will keep them for future edition [of Variation]. Particularly struck by difference in hardiness of varieties of Syringa persica.

Summary

Thanks AG for full answers to queries.

Delighted Mr Ford will undertake drawings [for Descent]; comments on some illustrations he would like.

Summary

Will do his best on the tooth [sent by CD] but does not put much weight on conclusions based on a single tooth of a horse.

Darwin attacked by three clergymen at BAAS meeting [Exeter, 1869].

Summary

Reports on the differences of growth and development of plants of three species grown at Geneva from seed collected at different localities. Forwards seed for CD to plant and observe differences in development.

Carl Linsseer has published a memoir on the times of flowering, foliation, etc. of diverse species in different parts of Europe [Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg 7th ser. 11 no. 7 (1868)] and concludes that the northern forms are more forward and that this is hereditary. AdeC’s experiments carried out on annuals, show only the effects of heredity; probably the direct action of physical conditions affects development, at least in perennial species.

Summary

He will send carrier to the Field office to collect pigeons.