[[1]]
Royal Gardens Kew
May 19/[18]73
My dear [Asa] Gray
It is long since I have written and I have much to thank you for in the shape of
roots which came in little boxes in perfect order.
I have had admirable and most useful information about N[orth]. A[merican].
Pines from Engelmann *1 which I shall publish.
I wish he would take up your oaks.
Hunnewells *2 case of Sikkim Rhododendron is gone, a right good one.
Torrey[']s *3 death is a great shock.
[[2]] You must have felt it severely.
We send Bolander subtropical things at various times, hardier Palms &c
Many of your boxes by post came smashed, & I fear some things lost -- it had
the Pinguicula & Chaptalia.
I am very glad that Sargent*4 is pleased -- I owe him a letter.
Ashes are hopeless.
We have had very hard work this winter with the Arboretum, but I hope
[[3]] I shall probably go with Huxley to France for the holidays and try to
improve myself in French for the President’s trip, having all but forgotten the
colloquials!
Bentham is back & at the Mimosa for Martius['] Flora.
Dyer is still with me: he will slope out of the Hort[icultural]. Soc[iety].; and is
this year to lecture on Botany at S[outh]. Kensington -- to the National School
teachers. The course will be like Huxleys -- an hours lecture in the morning &
the rest of the day (5--6 hours) spent by the pupils in going over the morning’s
work, with microscope, pen, ink paper, pencil &c &c superintended by the
Professor & assistants.
[[4]] Thus making practical Botanists of them at once. There will be 30 such
lectures. certificates & rewards are given according to the merit of the papers
the teachers give in which is reviewed by the assistants and Professor.
Huxley has done this twice for Zoology. He will be let off this year & Dyer do
the same for Botany.
Huxley is better, but his med[ical]. men. insist on a long holiday. He proposes
[[5]] the Auvergne. I have been poorly but am quite well again & at Vaccineae
for Gen[era]. Plant[arum]. still -- a terrible lot
No settlement yet of the Welwitsch affair.
Owen has lost his wife.
The R[oya]l Comm[ission] is going to report in favor of making Kew the
National Herbarium. Making another for Paleontological purposes at Brit[ish].
Mus[eum].
I have also sent Millichamp his seeds.*5
ENDNOTES
1. George Engelmann (1809--1884), a German American botanist.
2. H. H. Hunnewell (1810--1902), American industrialist and amateur
botanist.
3. John Torrey (1796--1873), American botanist and Asa Gray's teacher and
mentor.
4. Charles Sprague Sargent (1841--1927), American botanist and first
Director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum, a post he held from 1872-1927.
5. Although there is no valediction this appears to be the end of the letter.
Though the letter is unsigned it is clearly written in the hand of Sir Joseph
Dalton Hooker.
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