Summary

Henslow is dying.

Summary

H. W. Bates’s excellent article against glacial period [Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 5 (1860): 352–3] leaves CD "dumbfounded".

H. C. Watson’s hostility.

Summary

Affectionate regards to Henslow.

Summary

CD infers [incorrectly] from Huxley’s report that Henslow is dead.

Summary

CD misunderstood Huxley: Henslow is not dead.

Summary

Offers to go to Henslow despite his own poor health.

Summary

Henslow’s long suffering.

Donald Beaton’s articles in Cottage Gardener clever but not to be trusted.

Summary

Henslow’s death.

What a contrast C. C. Babington will be as Professor of Botany at Cambridge.

Beaton not to be trusted.

CD may switch from Athenæum to London Review & Wkly J. Polit.

Summary

CD’s doubts on biography of Henslow. Writing recollections of Cambridge days at JDH’s request.

Summary

Has written recollections of Henslow [Collected papers 2: 72–4].

Summary

CD’s changing taste in periodical literature.

William Darwin’s partnership in bank.

Work: variation and orchids.

Summary

Many mutual acquaintances are ill.

Summary

Trip to Torquay.

Superiority of Journal of Horticulture to Gardeners’ Chronicle for CD’s purposes.

Summary

Has worked out homologies of orchids’ pollinia and rostellum.

On W. H. Harvey’s review ["The natural evolution of organic species considered", Dublin Hosp. Gaz. 8 (1861): 146–52].

Summary

Orchids from Kew.

JDH’s income problems.

Summary

On orchids supplied by Kew; homologies of pollen and rostellum.

Summary

Puzzled by function of orchids’ rostellum.

Orchids’ pollen concentrated in two pollinia; hence one flower can fertilise only two others. This may explain precision of orchid pollination mechanisms.

Summary

Has found function of rostellum: modified stigma guarantees attachment of pollinia.

Summary

Personal regards.

William Darwin will make a botanist.

Summary

Orchid anatomy. Requests Lindley’s work on orchids [The genera and species of orchidaceous plants (1830–40)].