[[1]]
The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W
Kew
Feb 25/[18]78
Dear [Asa] Gray,
Thanks for receipt of cheque & for all the good things you have done for Kew &
self.
Last Thursday I announced to Council R[oyal] S[ociety] my resignation on next
St. Andrews day (Nov[ember] 30) -- which I believe they sincerely regretted. Of
course nothing was said as to a new President, but from what I hear all approve
of Spottiswoode, *1 whose claims as a Mathematician & physical engineer are very
high. He was P[resident] of the Math[ematical] Soc[iety] & is to be P[resident] of
Brit[ish] Ass[ociation] next year. Stokes *2 would not have done well & I am glad he
declined it *3 or rather gave me the means of putting my foot on it--he is too
hesitating[?] & unprogressive. -- & has no position[?] at all at Cambridge as a
manager or administrator of affairs but rather the contrary. If Spottiswoode is
elected I hope we shall
[[2]] have John Evans as Treasurer. He is a first rate man of business (a great
paper maker) an excellent geologist & archaeologist--a devotee to science & the
interests of the B[ritish S[ociety ]-- a good athenarch [ethnarch] at meetings, & at
our councils & our committees, a scholar & gentleman. With a large
acquaintance with scientific & literary men & what is of no small moment, a man
of jocund temperament.
Engelmann *4 has written to me about his Abies &c &c I am none the wiser! -also about Juniperus with his paper, & I am much instructed -- though utterly
confounded by his regarding our Sierra Nevada juniper the same an occidentalis!
-- The occidentalis of the Re Colorado invariably branched divided from the big root
into many trunks, each the maximum of extension [a tiny sketch of the roots
appears here], with the pith close
[[3]] to the bark on the roots aspect next [to] the axis of the tree & indeed, as
Brandegee *5 said described it, with no bark on that side aspect at all .-- he has
sent me sections not yet arrived. Whereas the Nevada one has a huge conical
trunk like nothing else known to me in nature. I cannot fancy two plants more
pronounced by habit -- then too the Colorado one grew above below P[inus]
ponderosa, the Nevada one above that level usually. -- Oh dear what
opportunities one misses of doing what I ought. I did not sketch the S. Nevada
one -- can both there be two there!
Well done [on] your hypothesis -- it is splendid. It fits in splendidly to a Friday evening
lecture on our work I am to give to the Royal Institution on April 12 entitled "On
the distribution of Plants in N. Am[erica]" & you may not know that the Friday
evenings are reserved for the single lectures
[[4]] of Swells[?]! The Committee who for years had given me all the privileges of
the Institution gratis, had over & over again harangued me to lecture & I have
steadily refused; but this year I could do so no longer. I had made meridional
distribution my principal theme & had intended to treat of Pleocine[sic] Flora [1
word illeg.] New &c & the effect of the alps as contrasted with the America Mts.
the latter in directing the course of migration & the former in favoring the persistence or
extinction of N. pleocine[sic] forms -- but I had not come to the formulating of the
subject as you have done -- I did not think as much of the Mediterranean as a
barrier -- regarding the dry extreme climate of the S[outh] shore as sufficient to finish
kill by another Pliocene[sic] that might have arrived there. Also who knows what
may turn up in the pleocine[sic] of N[orth] Africa?
I have been comparing E[ast] States Flora with California & am more than ever
[[5]] amazed at the difference even with an order as Caryophyllea.
I hope that you will indicate to me any views or papers of your's[sic] that you think
I may have overlooked or am likely to overlook. I intend to show first how your
researches on the Japan Flora & mine on the Arctic each came in, & all
formulations upon which we meet in theory (one of us in England the other =
America) & how we evaluate as to results after our private labours in after traveling
together. However I shall get the lecture finished, i.e. the subject properly
elaborated. I do not see, for I am really busier than ever!
Talking of the E[ast] & W[est] Flora of N[orth] Am[erica] I am surprised to find so
many Asiatic types in W[est] America
[[6]] that are not in the East -- the Western America representations of Asia seem to belong
to a different type from the Eastern America Asiatic representations of Asia. Can
both (the E[ast] & the W[est] Asiatic types) have branched off from one Asiatic
migration into N. America? or were th there two migrations at very different
periods, one into E[ast] the other into W[est] if so which was first? I have not read
up this matter. Please tell me where to look.
What do you say to the last vol[ume] of the P. Consort's life? Do you remember
our talk with Pickering *6 on our return from the country & our praising the
constitutional conduct of Victoria, as Queen. Well, here she appears all of a
[[7]] sudden as taking the lead in laying down a policy for her ministers, ordering
them to follow it out, & when they resist -- intriguing with other ministries to carry
her point How she can have been as simple as to publish such a revelation of
audaciously unconstitutional proceedings! it is another proof of her having no
good advisors & having no judgment of her own. The object is to show that
Russia the prince favored the Crimean War & that he forced it on the country as a
good thing, & that therefore all should do the same now as if dear Albert was alive. I
never before knew why Albert was so supportive with the ministers who were
Peers (Russell, Palmerston, Peel) as well as all the aristocracy generally, & I
[[8]] attributed it all to his being so much better than they were! They Queen & Prince
seem to have had all the dispatches sent to brought first to themselves for discussion & to
frame instructions upon for the ministers -- to be obeyed! -- & to have written to Kings
potentates & foreign diplomats -- without references to the ministers. All under
the advice of the German Dr. Stockmann who whose infallable[sic] opinion was crammed down
the ministers throats whenever they were recusant. The book is thought to have
done the Queen a great deal of mischief at this crisis -- when she & Dizzy *7 are
supposed to foster a war with Russia. How extraordinary that Dizzy should now
be the peoples' idol & the "People's William" (Gladstone) *8 be nowhere & have his
windows broken!
No doubt Gladstone's reiterated charges of the ministry intending to help the
Turks has done infinite mischief. Those ignorant deceitful orientals would
naturally suppose that Gladstone had means of finding *9 out Cabinet secrets &
that the Cabinet's assurances that they would not help were mere blinds; it is just
what they would have done themselves. I am no Tory -- but the liberals have
made a awful mess of it -- whatever the Torys have done! Ever with much love to
Mrs. Gray
yrs affec[tionately] | JD Hooker [signature]
*10
ENDNOTES
1. William H. Spottiswoode, mathematician and physicist, President of Royal
Society, 1878--1883.
2. Sir George Stokes, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, University of
Cambridge, 1849--1903; President of Royal Society, 1885-1890.
3. Text which runs from here to 'it' appears along the left margin of Page 1.
4. George Engelmann, German-American botanist.
5. Townsend Stith Brandegee, American botanist.
6. Charles Pickering, American naturalist.
7. Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804--1881). British Conservative
Politician and writer. Served as Prime Minister twice: 1874--1880, Feb to Dec
1868.
8. William Ewart Gladstone (1809--1898). British Liberal Politician. Served as
Prime Minister four times; 1868--1874, 1880--1885, Feb to July 1886, 1892-1894.
9. The text which runs from here to 'Gray' appears vertically along the right
margin of Page 8 and vertically along the left margin of Page 5.
10. The signature appears vertically and to the left on Page 5 and overwrites the
first three sentences 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.