Summary

Is trying to find a tutor for WED.

Summary

Huxley and William Sharpey praise JL’s paper [? on Daphnia, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 147 (1857): 79–100] at Philosophical Club.

Summary

Has TCE observed whether hybrids of Chinese and common forms [of geese] were wilder, or less tame, than both parents?

Summary

Glad THH has taken up aphid question versus Owen ["On the agamic reproduction and morphology of Aphis", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 22 (1858): 193–236].

Fertilisation and inheritance discussed. Speculates that fertilisation may be a mixture rather than a fusion. Can understand in no other way why crossed forms tend to go back to ancestral forms.

Summary

The [Irish] rabbits arrived safely. "They shall be skeletonized." CD now has rabbits from Shetland, Madeira and Ireland; hopes to receive one from Jamaica.

Summary

Asks writer of an article on weeds why he supposes "there is too much reason to believe that foreign seed of an indigenous species is often more prolific than that grown at home?" The point is of interest to CD "in regard to the great battle of life which is perpetually going on all around us". Cites analogous observations by Asa Gray and J. D. Hooker. Does writer know "of any other analogous cases of a weed introduced from another land beating out … a weed previously common in any particular field or farm?"

Summary

Rule that species vary most in larger genera seems universal.

Response to Gardeners’ Chronicle note on "Bees and kidney beans" [Collected papers 1: 275–7].

Summary

When he has reviewed his work, he will give up pigeons and will probably give them away next summer. Wants a few Malay eggs in the spring.

Summary

Mrs J. S. Henslow’s illness.

Summary

Can HF ask Col. E. Dickie [probably Col. Edward John Dickey] enclosed questions about Indian horses? [Questions relate to striped markings on the Kutch breed of horses.]

Summary

Asking for specific information about reproduction in barnacles.

Summary

Thanks AG for his criticisms of CD’s views; finds it difficult to avoid using the term "natural selection" as an agent.

Discusses crossing in Fumaria and barnacles.

Has received a naturally crossed kidney bean in which the seed-coat has been affected by the pollen of the fertilising plant.

Finds the rule of large genera having most varieties holds good and regards it as most important for his "principle of divergence".