Summary

Discusses revisions for Variation, 2d ed.

Discusses experiments involving graft-hybrids.

Alludes to Pangenesis.

Summary

Describes experiments designed to produce graft-hybrid. Has achieved adhesion in great majority of experiments. Too early to tell what ultimate success will be.

Summary

Comments on GJR’s experiments.

Summary

Looks forward to reading CD’s statements about reflex action in Insectivorous plants.

Has prepared paper ["Physiology of the nervous system of Medusae", Rep. BAAS (1876): 158–63] in which he insists on occurrence of reflex action in absence of nerves. Would like to cite CD’s authority for occurrence of reflex action in plants.

Summary

Will propose GJR for membership in Linnean Society.

Discusses GJR’s grafting experiments.

Summary

Sends specimens of grafted potatoes. Describes grafting experiments designed to prove possibility of graft-hybrids, and thus, Pangenesis.

Summary

CD is circulating certificate proposing GJR for membership in Linnean Society.

Discusses hybrid potatoes from Germany.

Summary

Mentions his appearance before Vivisection Commission.

Discusses his plans for planting and observing the carrots sent by GJR.

Mentions views of J. S. Burdon Sanderson on graft-hybrids.

Comments on GJR’s paper ["Instinct and acquisition", Nature 12 (1875): 553–4].

[Letter incorrectly dated "Thursday 8th" by CD.] [!? shd be note not synopsis]

Summary

Carrots have arrived; CD has potted them.

Summary

Sends successful graft-hybrid of red and white carrot.

CD should correct passage in Variation explaining deformation of sternum in fowls [Variation, 2d ed., 1: 287–8].

Chapter in Variation on Pangenesis is admirable.

Summary

Suggests skin-grafting experiment on birds.

Discusses case of Edwin Ray Lankester; it has aroused his indignation.

Summary

Asks to borrow Ernst Haeckel’s Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Hydromedusen (1865) [and Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren (1869)].

Has not been neglecting Pangenesis for Medusae.

Summary

Sends books.

Discusses GJR’s Pangenesis experiments; views of Galton on the theory.

Summary

Thanks for copy of 2d ed. of Variation.

Summary

Mentions receiving GJR’s paper on Medusae [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 12 (1876): 524–31].

Will call on GJR in London.

Summary

Trip to London delayed.

Summary

Will call tomorrow morning.

Summary

Congratulates GJR on lecture ["The physiology of the nervous system of Medusa", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 8 (1875–8): 166–77].

Summary

Encloses essay by Haeckel criticising Pangenesis [Die Perigenesis der Plastidule (1876)]. Discusses Haeckel’s theory of inheritance.

Asks about the Physiological Society.

Summary

Describes discovery by his son [Francis Darwin] of protoplasmic filaments extending from small glands in the leaves of Dipsacus [see Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 26 (1877): 4–8].