Summary

Returns the memorial, signed, expressing concern about proposed renovations at St Mark’s in Venice.

Summary

Returns completed questionnaire concerning visualising faculty [see LL 3: 177–9]. Thinks age important. Recalls faces of school friends but cannot remember those of people recently met.

Comments on his part [of Erasmus Darwin].

Summary

Thanks for Erasmus Darwin.

Summary

Thanks CD for a copy of Erasmus Darwin.

Summary

Thanks for Erasmus Darwin.

Summary

Thanks CD for signing a memorial.

Summary

Encloses latest report on his new potatoes. Believes the plants should be grown from seed every fourth year to preserve yield and disease-resistance.

Summary

Sends a book on shorthand

and a paper, probably by Erasmus Darwin, entitled "Moral and physical hermeneutics", on the subject of temperance.

Summary

Answers EK’s questions. Sorry to report Erasmus Darwin sold only 600 copies at advance sale.

Summary

Describes problems of raising money [for potato experiments]. "A Government official in another office remarked to me that it was very difficult for Ministers to decide what to do in such cases as they must be prepared for mere cavillers in the H[ouse] of Commons."

Summary

Thanks for the offer of lending a manuscript relating to his grandfather. It will be of use if a second edition of the Life of Dr. Darwin should appear. Will take the greatest care of them and return them as soon as he has read them.

Summary

Thanks for Erasmus Darwin. It is a rare life and an unmatched illustration of the transmission of intellectual strength.

Summary

Supports CD’s theory but doubts that butterfly life-cycle is consistent with it. Metamorphosis of butterflies is not comparable to that of other insects.

Comments on butterfly fertilisation of flowers.

Summary

Wants a plant identified;

would like some cotton seeds.

Summary

Thanks ESG for list of errata in his part [of Erasmus Darwin].

Extends sympathy on death of Edward Wheler, E. S. G’s brother-in-law.

Summary

Intends to get his ideas on the "wearing out" of varieties printed.

This year’s crosses were failures.

Summary

Has never heard of bees that are carnivorous; hopes someone will investigate ASP’s observations.

Summary

German edition of Erasmus Darwin will not appear until next year.

Summary

Thanks CD for noticing some difficulties in his hypothesis. Concedes that there is no proof that higher plants are more intolerant of carbon dioxide than lower plants. Argues that the main difference between the lowlands and the high mountains in Palaeozoic times would be the much greater climatic fluctuations that would occur on the mountains. Discusses carbon dioxide diffusion in the Palaeozoic atmosphere. Thinks that the large number of species and genera peculiar to high mountains favours the assumption that "their diffusion must date from a geologically remote period" [see ML 2: 20–2].

Summary

Congratulations on Erasmus Darwin; likes CD’s part better than Ernst Krause’s.

Received false notice of Asa Gray’s death.

Gray and JDH engaged in comparing widely separated but floristically similar regions.