[[1]]
Kew
Ja[nuar]y 18/[18]75
My dear [Asa] Gray
I have as usual several letters of yours to answer -- & am equally in arrears to others
-- but except I get material assistance I see nothing for it but to throw up. This is as
good as promised me by the Treasury.
I have many thanks to send you in primis for the delicate little notice of my darling
wife which I have this
[[2]] moment read.
Romneya seeds are most acceptable -- how I hope we can raise them.
Lyell has had a bad long epileptic fit & is very weak. He fell down stairs a month ago
& cut his head, was laid up for 3 weeks recovery -- Came down to lunch on Xmas &
caught influenza & has been laid up since -- last week was getting up well when
epilepsy (so called) came on & lasted from 10 -- 4 PM[?] -- a succession of fits with
vomiting.
Books for Linn[ean] Soc[iety] & Hort[icultural] Soc[iety] &c -- all right.
Sargent has indeed written most affectionately. I have a great
[[3]] regard for it himself & his wife. His trees have arrived in capital order.
Mrs Gray[']s letter to my sister has touched me more than all the rest I have received
put together. I she have got it & shall keep it as long as I live.
Sechium is all right -I had not forgotten the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, but we have not had a
meeting of the Library[?] Committee since I was able to attend to it -- it is on the
agenda. But do you also apply -- whether I succeed or no, though sure[?].
I do not quite understand from enclosed letter of Henry’s whether the Jamesonian
collections *1 were bought, lent, or sent for inspection only, but assume the
[[4]] latter -- his family at Quito were bigotted[sic] Romanists & hated him & his
Botany & the poor fellow died of starvation on his way from Guayaquil to Quito -- He
was upward of 80 & started without sufficient cash or food, which he might have had
from our Consul who knew him well -- I should be disposed to keep them till I heard.
He has relations near Dundee. His representative is I suppose a son who was in
Chile & who was Protestant[?] (I think) & got on well with the father. The memorials
of Wymans are very interesting. *2 Please if you can, forward this to a Miss Grace
Ellis, who came here with a Brother last spring. They were friends of Tyndale-- He
has sent me some “wood--hangings”.
Ev[er] y[our]s affectionately J.D. Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. The collections of botanist William Jameson (1796--1873).
2. The text which runs from here until the end of the letter is written vertically up the
left margin of page 4.
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