Summary

Certain there are three forms of Primula sinensis.

Summary

Distinguishes two kinds of floral dimorphism: that affecting sexual organs and that affecting outer envelopes.

Summary

Thanks for Oxalis. Only experimentation will show whether disproportion of long- to short-styled flowers is a functional dimorphism.

Case of aestival flowers is very curious.

Summary

Sends letter via his brother visiting England. Awaits continuation of CD’s "wonderful book", which excites much interest.

Comments on Civil War which he expects will end slavery.

Summary

Encloses a passage from his book, The botany of the voyage of H.M.S. "Herald" [1852–7].

Discusses possibility of publishing work on flora of Hawaiian Islands.

Summary

Sends additions and corrections for 2d German ed. of Origin [1862–3].

Before a German translation of Orchids is done, CD thinks HGB should read part of it and decide if it is worth while; CD has doubts.

Summary

Thanks WED for eyeglass.

Reports on health of Horace and family matters.

Has finished Orchids.

Summary

The Director-General of the Army Medical Department [J. B. Gibson] agrees to have CD’s circular distributed to Army surgeons in India and the West Indies, with reply being voluntary. [See Descent 1: 244–5 n.]

Summary

Thinks THH’s [Anniversary] Address [to Geological Society, Feb 1862, Q. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 18 (1862): xl–liv] a wonderful condensed and original summary of palaeontology.

Summary

Discusses insects of south temperate S. America and New Zealand, especially with respect to the distribution and origin of Chilean Carabi, and has sent for a German monograph to learn about the eleven species he has found.

He refers to Chilean poverty in butterflies; scanty New Zealand insect fauna.

An analysis of south temperate insects is desirable, but the small English collections make him afraid to undertake it.

Summary

Their views on transformism differ a great deal, as CD says, but perhaps not as much as CD thinks. Sending his [Physiologie comparée: métamorphoses de l’homme et des animaux (1862)].

Summary

Hooker has written about WED’s going to Kew.

Summary

Has looked for [Ophrys] arachnites for CD, but it is too early in the season.

Summary

Discusses Leschenaultia, finds no stigmatic surface in the indusium.

Gives information on where to obtain paper for drying plants and where to obtain a microscope.

Summary

Quiz has had to be killed because he became vicious.

Horace Darwin strangely ill.

Summary

Asks JDH to look at stigma of Leschenaultia biloba; it seems certain there is no stigma within the bud. Case would be important.

Singular case of peculiar structure now remodified into the functional condition of a Campanula.

Summary

Has dissected Leschenaultia biloba flowers. Finds no stigmatic surface in the indusium. Describes what is the apparent stigma but has found no pollen-tubes to confirm it as the real one.

Summary

Has returned last page of index [of Orchids]. Hopes JM will reconsider price – 10s seems high. Suggests two reviewers likely to be favourable. Sends list for presentation copies.

Summary

Thanks for letter and "valuable" extracts.

If S. American Carabi differ more from other species than do those from other distant locations (e.g., Siberia, Europe, etc.), CD agrees that difference would be too great to have occurred in the recent glacial age; CD also rejects independent origin. Plants seem to migrate more readily than animals. HWB should not underrate length of glacial period; CD also believes they will be driven to an older glacial period.

Sorry about news of British Museum – hopeless to contend against anyone supported by Owen.

CD dearly wishes HWB could find a situation in which he could give time to science.

Summary

About Quiz and [Horace Darwin’s] health.

Asks whether CD has tried W. B. Tegetmeier’s beehives.