This volume includes many letters previously unpublished, and chronicles a year that was enlivened by scientific controversy and filled with scientific queries and discussions relating to Darwin's transmutation theory. His love of botany and his expanding experimental program is well depicted by correspondence with professional botanists, horticulturalists, and hobbyists. Nine appendixes provide additional information from the Darwin Archive and from nineteenth-century publications. The letters also provide glimpses of life among the Victorian gentry and reveal the practical and emotional support Darwin received from his family.