Summary

Thanks JDH for extract on Hedychium pollination; it shows CD’s prior interpretation was incorrect.

Summary

Notes that Mr[s] Barber’s communication [forwarded by CD] will be published because of more striking than usual facts ["Notes on … larva and pupa of Papilio nireus", Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. (1874): 519–21].

Encloses Thomas Belt’s address.

Summary

An account of his observations on Aldrovanda and Utricularia.

Sends CD his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beitr. Biol. Pflanz. 1 (1875) Heft 3: 71–92] in advance of publication [see Insectivorous plants, pp. 321 et seq., 395–6].

Summary

Thanks JC-B for copy of Medical Reports of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum.

Summary

Has been testing the digestive powers of Drosera; wants to know whether a group of substances that elicit similar responses are related.

Summary

Asks JDH for leaves of Byblis and Roridula to examine, and D. Oliver for an anomalous species of Utricularia.

Summary

Sends information CD requested on phosphate of ammonia and on nitrogenous substances produced during putrefaction of animal matter.

Summary

Doubts whether sudden and great variations often occur.

Comments on colours of flowers.

Summary

Oliver will attend to his letter.

Tells of discovery and rediscovery of Aldrovanda.

Asks what CD thinks of "old Pritchard’s discourse" [C. Pritchard, Natural science and natural religion (1874)]. Does not affect evolution at all. It does affect the rather unprofitable doctrine of materialism.

His plans for the Royal Society Presidential Address.

Summary

Acknowledges the information about the phosphate and about putrefaction. Regrets that there is no knowledge of the conjectured substance. [See 9671.]

Summary

Sends specimens of Byblis, Roridula, and Utricularia for CD’s examination.

Summary

Suggests an explanation for difference in excitability of Drosera leaves to meat and albumen on the one hand and, on the other, fibrin, areolar tissue, gelatin, and fibrous basis of bone.

Summary

Announces arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at Canterbury, New Zealand.

Summary

CD responds [to 9667] with description of his own effort to study Aldrovanda and his observations on the structure of Dionaea.

His admiration for FJC’s earlier studies of the Venus’s fly-trap.

He urges FJC to proceed promptly with publication of his memoir on Aldrovanda [Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen 1, Heft 3 (1875): 71–92].

Summary

Discusses the powers of digestion of Drosera and why certain substances produce less excitement in the plant than others.

Summary

Thanks WHMC and the Astronomer Royal for informing him of the safe arrival of the Merope [Leonard Darwin’s ship] at New Zealand. [See 9677.]

Summary

Thanks him for specimens.

Summary

Writes about AHF’s book on Swiss ants.

Recounts his own observations on ants carrying cocoons.

Summary

Responds to CD’s questions about relation to gelatin of areolar tissue, fibrous basis of bone, and other substances CD is using in his work on digestion of Drosera.

Summary

Thanks WBD for his book, Cave hunting (1874).