[[1]]
Royal Gardens Kew
Ja[nuar]y 15 [18]73
Dear [Asa] Gray,
I am deep in Pinus & prone to consider P[inus] Edulis, [Pinus] Fremontiana, [Pinus]
Llaveana, [Pinus] cembroides, Newb(non and Zucc.[?]) & [Pinus] Parryana, Engelm. are
either one species, or if 2 or more, are inextricably confused. Can any America[n] Botanist
unravel the coil? The buds are identical, & very unlike those of any other Pine known to
me.
What is P[inus] Chihahuana [Chihuahuana] Engelm? Torrey is surely wrong: & mixing up
P[inus] tuberculata Don. with insignis. Is not the deflexa Chihahuana [Chihuahuana] be our older
insignis? tuberculata? -- I
[[2]] His P.
Parry’s P[inus] Torreyana is said to be Gordon’s [Pinus?] lophosperma, an earlier name.
I have nearly completed our Conifer collection & am at Oaks, an awful lot, worse many
times than the Pines.
I sent you the Linn[ean] Trans[actions]. for Smithsonian. 15/.
Yours of Ja[nuar]y 4th is just arrived & is followed by the jolly bag of Torreya seeds.
Smith has a note about the Wardian Case of Sikkim Rhododendron. Please tell me legibly to
whom & where [two pages of the letter presumed missing] *1
[[3]] troubles Dyer has been most kind, wise & considerate; -- who is a man of guile
singular delicacy of feeling & refinement. Berkeley is delighted with him, as is my wife. You
know that I give her £100 per an[nu]m for 4 days of 4 hours each per week. He will come &
live at Kew as soon as the days are a little longer. We had his 2 sisters here for a night last
week nice intelligent girls, the eldest a cruelly deformed dwarf, whose passion is music.
The opinion of [the] Council [of the] R[oyal] S[ociety] on new president was taken last
Thursday Hooker 18, D[uke] of Devonshire 5, Spottiswoode 1 *2.
I have been thinking over what you say of importing a German Professor, & have my
doubts. There[sic] Education & social manner are so wholly different from ours, & they so
often prove impracticable -- rather, if
[[4]] you must go abroad try a Swiss, but have you not good men at home? -- Dyer would
not care for it. I offered him £1200 in Calcutta [Kolkata] as Prof[essor] of Agricult[ural]
Chemistry -- in vain -- he wants to take a position at home.
Poor Bentham is awfully hard up for Linnean matter.
I must break off, having many letters to write & tomorrow I go for 3 days visit to Cheshire &
a Mr Tollemache, who brought Gladstone to Kew & is his most intimate friend.
I am dear Gray | with affectionate | regards from both of us to Mrs | Gray, & much peace in
your new | future, Ever y[ou]rs aff[ectionatel]y| J D Hooker [signature].
ENDNOTES
1. The text of the extant letter pages is clearly not sequential, from the pages available and
the standard layout of Hooker's letters it is possible to surmise that there are most likely
two pages missing which would originally have formed pages 3 and 4 of the text. The
pages of this transcript have been numbered according to the surviving pages only, with
no break in numbers.
2. This sentence is written in the left--hand margin of the page.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic
image(s) of this document where possible.