Summary

W. H. Harvey is dead. His loss to science.

Will get a copy of Crawfurd’s paper. It was such trash he tore his up.

His letter to Asa Gray was about his [JDH’s] proof that America will have an aristocracy from interbreeding of wealth, intellect, and beauty; and the lower classes, not having time for politics, will leave them to the aforementioned.

Summary

JDH sends a list of the principal confirmatory evidences of CD’s theory which he has prepared at W. R. Grove’s request for Nottingham speech ["Presidential address", Rep. BAAS 26 (1866): liii–lxxxi].

Summary

Comments on JDH’s list – very good, but Orchids and Primula paper have too indirect a bearing to be worth mentioning. The Eozoon is a very important fact and to a much lesser degree the Archaeopteryx. Müller’s Für Darwin [1864] perhaps the most important contribution.

CD has forgotten to mention Bates on variation and JDH’s Arctic paper ["Distribution of Arctic plants", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 251–348] in new edition of Origin.

Now finds that Owen claims to be originator of natural selection.

Summary

No enclosure in JDH’s last letter.

Would like to be amused "for my stomach & the whole Universe is this day demoniacal in my eyes".

Summary

He is not grieved at CD’s omissions of his [JDH’s] work [from Origin, 4th ed.]. It proves nothing – claims only to be illustration of using CD’s methods.

Summary

Thanks for Asa Gray’s letter, enclosed.

Knew JDH would not care about omissions but was vexed at his own forgetfulness.

Summary

Has heard from B. J. Sulivan about the fossils at Gallegos, Patagonia. Would be a great haul for palaeontology if Duke of Somerset would encourage Capt. Mayne to collect them [on survey of Magellan Strait].

Tells JDH of a new map of world that he might use in his lecture [on "Insular floras", BAAS, 1866, J. Bot. Br. & Foreign 5 (1867): 23–31; Gard. Chron. (1867): 6, 27, 50, 75].

Impressed by H. Spencer’s last number, but each suggestion would require years of work to be of use to science.

Summary

Suggests a memorial from Huxley, Murchison, and other geologists on the Gallegos fossils. He will speak privately to Duke of Somerset.

Summary

Asks help in naming a lupin, enclosed. Nurseryman said parties who make experiments should find the names. He might have added "and not trouble their friends".

Summary

Working on "Insular floras" lecture for BAAS Nottingham meeting [see 5135].

Puzzled at distribution of Madeiran and Canaries plants and insects.

Supports Forbes’s Atlantis hypothesis [see 956], which he has reread and to which he will allude.

Wollaston disappointing on Madeiran insects.

Summary

His reasons for rejecting Atlantis hypothesis connecting Madeira and Canary Islands.

Summary

Questions for his lecture on "Insular floras".

Comments on CD’s criticism of Atlantis. Has no fixed opinion on continental extensions. Great objections to hypotheses of CD and Forbes: botanical to CD’s; geological to Forbes’s. Will point out that natural selection is necessary to both hypotheses.

Summary

Answers JDH’s questions on connection of SE. England and continent,

on the effect of breaking the Isthmus of Panama,

and on Madeira flora as remnant of Tertiary flora.

Cautionary remarks for JDH on his "Insular floras" speech, designed to strengthen case of "occasional migration" theory.

Summary

Alexander Beatson mentions a bird in considerable numbers on St Helena which appears to contradict CD’s statement in Journal of researches that only introduced land birds exist there.

The Azores flora and fauna tell heavily against Atlantis joining them with America and against transoceanic migration from America.

Summary

CD defends his view of land birds on St Helena.

Explains why he would not expect American plants on the Azores.

It makes him miserable that he and JDH look at everything so differently.

Summary

Will do justice to CD’s objections to continental extension theory.

CD misunderstood his question about Isthmus.

Responds to CD’s other points about Madeira and the Azores.

Summary

Is attempting to sum up the two theories impartially and must raise all the difficulties with each. More on his differences with CD.

Summary

Admits that occasional transport is not a well-established hypothesis but believes it more probable than continental extension as an explanation for the stocking of islands.

Summary

More on continental extension vs transport [or migration] hypothesis. New questions raised. On Madeira, why were insects and plants changed so much, birds hardly at all?

Erratic boulders of the Azores.

Summary

Will be glad to see JDH at Down.