1859-1863] DIMORPHISM 229 



has delighted me, because no group is so isolated as Birds. I Letter 155 

 much wish to hear when we meet which digits are developed ; 

 when examining birds two or three years ago, I distinctly 

 remember writing to Lyell that some day a fossil bird would 

 be found with the end of wing cloven, i.e. the bastard-wing 

 and other part, both well developed. Thanks for Von 

 Martius, returned by this post, which I was glad to see. 

 Poor old Wagner l always attacked me in a proper spirit, and 

 sent me two or three little brochures, and I thanked him 

 cordially. The Germans seem much stirred up on the 

 subject. I received by the same post almost a little volume 

 on the Origin. 



I cannot work above a couple of hours daily, and this 

 plays the deuce with me. 



P.S. 2nd. I have worked like a slave and been baffled 

 like a slave in trying to make out the meaning of two very 

 different sets of stamens in some Melastomaceas. 2 I must tell 

 you one fact. I counted 9,000 seeds, one by one, from my 

 artificially fertilised pods. There is something very odd, but 

 I am as yet beaten. Plants from two pollens grow at 

 different rates ! Now, what I want to know is, whether in 

 individuals of the same species, growing together, you have 

 ever noticed any difference in the position of the pistil or in 

 the size and colour of the stamens ? 



To T. H. Huxley. Letter 156 



Down, Dec. i8th [1862]. 



I have read Nos. IV. and V. 3 They are simply perfect. 

 They ought to be largely advertised ; but it is very good in 

 me to say so, for I threw down No. IV. with this reflection, 



1 Probably Johann Andreas Wagner, author of " Zur Feststellung des 

 Artbegriffes, mit besonderer Bezugnahme auf die Ansichten von Nathusius, 

 Darwin, Is. Geoffroy and Agassiz," MiincJien Sitzungsb. (1861), p. 301, 

 and of numerous papers on zoological and palasozoological subjects. 



2 Several letters on the Melastomaceae occur in our Botanical section. 



3 On our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic 

 Nature, being six Lectures to Working Men delivered at the Museum 

 of Practical Geology by Prof. Huxley, 1863. These lectures, which 

 were given once a week from Nov. loth, 1862, onwards, were printed 

 from the notes of Mr. J. A. Mays, a shorthand writer, who asked 

 permission to publish them on his own account ; Mr. Huxley stating in 

 a prefatory " Notice " that he had no leisure to revise the lectures. 



