Summary

Hopes to arrive with MS of "Insular floras" on Saturday.

Summary

Returns two volumes of Felix Holt [George Eliot (1866)]

and the Coddington [lens].

John Smith will send Drosera.

Nation reports that Louis Agassiz holds that the Amazon Valley was formed since the glacial epoch.

Summary

BAAS lecture on "Insular floras" [see 5135] went well.

Summary

Pleased by JDH’s success. JDH gives argument for occasional transport with perfect fairness.

W. R. Grove’s address [see 5201] good, but is disappointed that species part was so general.

Summary

On his "Insular floras" lecture.

Huxley’s success as President of Section.

D. W. R. Grove’s address. Grove left Darwinism to JDH after "sounding the charge".

Summary

[N. C.?] Seringe’s article [unspecified] has come safely.

Feels deeply at CD’s distress [Susan Darwin is dying].

Drosera will go in a day or two.

Summary

Susan Darwin still lives, but is dying.

Requests an Erica massoni to compare with Drosera.

On L. Agassiz’s "astonishing" view that Amazon Valley was filled with gigantic glacier. Asa Gray says LA is determined to cover the globe with glaciers in order to destroy "Darwinian views".

Excellent review of A. Murray [The geographical distribution of mammals] in Gardeners’ Chronicle [(1866): 902].

Frankland’s Royal Institution lecture ["On the source of muscular power" Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 4 (1862–6): 661–85].

Wallace’s paper.

Summary

Drosera and Erica massoni have been sent.

Had heard of Agassiz’s theory but not that CD’s theory had raised it.

JDH wrote the article on A. Murray.

Frankland’s lecture too much for him.

Summary

Did not think JDH had written Murray review [see 5217].

Does not think Gardeners’ Chronicle best for publication of "Insular floras" [Gard. Chron. (1867): 6–7, 27, 50–1, 75–6].

T. Laxton’s article, on direct action of pollen of peas on seed and pod, a grand physiological fact and "delightful" for Pangenesis.

Interview with Herbert Spencer.

Summary

Susan Darwin is dead.

Summary

Lyell has sent chapters [of 10th ed. of Principles] to JDH, who objects to CL’s ignoring the part vapour plays in affecting temperature of the globe.

Parliament will be asked to buy W. J. Hooker’s collection.

Summary

Introduces Ernst Haeckel.

Lyell sent same chapters to CD, who thinks them very good but is not convinced that changes of land and water will do all he thinks.

Summary

Requests water-lily pods to count, weigh, and to germinate some of the seeds of the crossed and uncrossed pods.

Hopes Haeckel did not bore him.

Summary

Left strict orders about Euryale seeds but "labour, difficulty and expense of getting anything done scientifically by practical men is untold".

The E. J. Eyre controversy [Jamaica uprising]. Odd that Huxley joins the "persecution fund". The principles involved are fiddlesticks.

Summary

Requests roots of two species of Mirabilis for "a curious experiment in crossing".

Has subscribed £10 to Jamaica committee to prosecute Governor Eyre.

Summary

His views on the Eyre controversy.

Went to Shrewsbury (for sale of Susan’s effects), hoping to buy some Wedgwood medallions, but they had been bought.

Summary

Will visit Kew on Tuesday [27 Nov].

Summary

Asks CD to send W. R. Grove titles and place of publication of the Müller [Für Darwin (1864)] and Walsh (Walsh 1864–5) papers he referred to in his address [BAAS lecture at Nottingham, see 5135].

Summary

Lyell’s volume [Principles, 10th ed.] received.

"We must now keep him straight anent origin and development."

Some of Spencer’s new part is interesting but much is dull and ponderous.

Huxley’s Elementary physiology [1866].

Has finished his New Zealand manual [Handbook of New Zealand flora (1864–7)]. New Zealand flora [and past geological conditions] suggest islands were once connected.

Speculates on the total amount of living organised matter on the globe, and whether it varies.

Balfour Stewart on sunspots.

Summary

Is sending some plants and seeds to JDH.

Thanks Mrs Hooker for telling him of a life of his grandfather [Erasmus Darwin] of which he had not heard.