Summary

Has lately found frog that has eggs on its back.

Pupae of caddis-flies living on rocks have lost fringe of hairs on their feet. In species that live in the water these are used for swimming.

Summary

Thanks CD for accepting dedication.

Asks CD to support his candidacy for position as Registrar of the University of London by talking to Sir John Lubbock, one of the most influential members of the Senate.

Summary

Suggests references that might answer CD’s [unidentified] request for information about coral islands.

Summary

F. Galton and others suggest that he go in for Fellowship [of Royal Society]. Asks that CD propose him. If he is unable to do so HWB will not be hurt to wait another year.

Summary

Oxalis seeds incorrectly named. H. N. Moseley says pigeons in Malaya eject seeds fit for germination.

Summary

Thanks for CD’s interest in his paper on plant movements ["Über die Ursachen der periodischer Bewegungen der Blumen und Laubblätter", Flora 56 (1873): 433–41, 449–55]. AFB concentrated on clear cases, though he knows there are others.

Experiments on function of movement: Mimosa leaves, held so they cannot move, die.

Summary

Thanks CD for gift to support his research.

Summary

Encloses Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, with account of a fungus that exhales chlorine;

relates his discovery in 1852 of a flowering plant that had "perfectly formed beetles" in the place of anthers.

Summary

Birthday wishes.

Summary

Statement of U.S. sales of CD’s works.

Summary

Cites evolutionary passages by Alexander Braun in English edition of Braun’s Verjüngung [1853].

Summary

A stonemason who has read Origin and Descent and defends CD’s theory against theological prejudice, would like to read CD’s other books but is too poor to afford them.

Summary

Sends regards from Capt. Charles Owen, who had collected beetles for CD.

Owen’s son is going to Oregon with Wallis Nash.

Summary

Has arranged for publication of his translation of Weismann.

S. H. Scudder article on sexual dimorphism in butterflies [Proc. Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. 12 (1877): 150–8].

Summary

£100 has arrived and LW will set to work.

Summary

GH no longer believes in the value of cross-fertilisation in plants.

Summary

Sends birthday wishes.

Comments on progress of CD’s theory in Germany. Mentions opposition of Rudolf Virchow and his reply Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre [1878].

Describes research trip to Brittany and Normandy.

Research on Challenger Radiolaria.

Summary

Birthday congratulations from the editors of Kosmos. They will mark the occasion with a special number of Kosmos.

Summary

Birthday greetings.

Summary

Has sent copy of his new book, Colour-sense [1879]; in anticipation of criticism, he justifies his reliance on recorded observations rather than experiments, by the heavy demands of his career as a journalist.