254 EVOLUTION [Chap. IV 



Letter 180 mishaps — through the breakdown of trains, diligences, etc., 

 so that we have been sadly put out in our reckoning — 

 and have lost some of the main objects that brought us 

 round by this part of France — none of which were idle or 

 unimportant. 



Busk started yesterday for Paris from Bruniqucl, to make 

 sure of being present at the meeting of the Royal Council on 

 Thursday. He will tell you that there were strong reasons 

 for me remaining behind him. But as I seconded the pro- 

 posal of Mr. Darwin for the Copley Medal, in default of my 

 presence at the first meeting, I beg that you will express my 

 great regrets to the President and Council at not being there, 

 and that I am very reluctantly detained. I shall certainly be 

 in London (d.v.) by the second meeting on the 3rd proximo. 

 Meanwhile I solicit the favour of being heard, through you, 

 respecting the grounds upon which I seconded Mr. Darwin's 

 nomination for the Copley Medal. 



Referring to the classified list which 1 drew up of Mr. 

 Darwin's scientific labours, ranging through the wide field 

 of (1) Geology, (2) Physical Geography, (3) Zoology, (4) 

 physiological Botany, (5) genetic Biology, and to the power 

 with which he has investigated whatever subject he has taken 

 up, — Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit, — I am of opinion that 

 Mr. Darwin is not only one of the most eminent naturalists of 

 his day, but that hereafter he will be regarded as one of the 

 great naturalists of all countries and of all time. His early 

 work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs consti- 

 tutes an era in the investigation of the subject. As a mono- 

 graphic labour, it may be compared with Dr. Wells' " Essay 

 upon Dew," as original, exhaustive, and complete — containing 

 the closest observation with large and important generalisa- 

 tions. 



Among the zoologists his monographs upon the Balanida? 

 and Lepadidce, Fossil and Recent, in the Palasontographical 

 and Ray Societies' publications, are held to be models of 

 their kind. 



In physiological Botany, his recent researches upon the 

 dimorphism of the genital organs in certain plants, embodied 

 in his papers in the Linnean Journal, on Primula, Linum, and 

 Ly thrum, are of the highest order of importance. They open 

 a new mine of observation upon a field which had been 



