[[1]]
THE ROYAL SOCIETY,
BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON. W.
Kew
Feb 8/[18]77.
My dear Gray,
I have not as yet even wished you a happy new year and many of them -- but like
Martha I am "troubled with much serving". Now too I have a new edition of my
Students Brit[ish] Flora on hand, anent which nothing strikes me as [word crossed
out, illeg.] so curious as the contrast with your Manual in respect of the limits of
species. Will you even be bothered with the subspecies and varieties that drive me
frantic, & in my view are not wirth[sic] the time they take to elucidate.
What I wish now to consult you
[[2]] about is the position of Gymnosperms, whether to make of them a subclass of
Dicotyledons, or a group equal to all other Phaenogams[sic]: i.e. should it be
1 Monocot[yledons]
2 Dicot[yledons]
& Angiosp[erms]
& Gymnosp[erms]
or Phaenogams
1. Angiosperms
Monocot[yledons]
Dicot[yledons]
2 Gymnmosperms
I see that you and Decaisne *1, and (in Decaisne[?] and [illeg.]) I have adopted the first
course, & I still incline to it. Oliver is disposed to go in for the 2nd with [William
Turner Thiselton] Dyer. No one could weigh the evidence on both sides so well as
you could. Much should depend on the structureof Gnetum embryo -- [illeg. crossed
out] -- sacs &c; & I think Gnetum is quite overlooked by the physiologies in
[[3]] removing gymnosperm from Dicot[yledon]s I have just sent to press the
corrected Primer, a work which has cost me immense labor. I feel terribly the want of
that facility for writing such a book as Lecturing would have given me.
I was very busy both at Garden & R[oyal] S[ociety] -- you will to rejoice to hear that I
am most comfortable at home. My wife has fallen at once into my ways & that of the
house, and there has been no hitch of any kind. To the children she is most attentive
& most affectionately considerate, & to myself all I could expect,
[[4]] (high as my expectations were) or indeed even have hoped to get.
[illeg. word crossed out] I cannot help casting lingering looks behind & feeling
profoundly melancholy at times -- but nothing can be brighter than my visible future,
little as I now dare trust to it.
My belongings are all well -- Mrs Lombe *2 is less suffering from neuralgia &
melancholy -- but looks very haggard. Bentham is wonderfully well. Oliver is about to
recommence the African Flora. Moore[?] is busy at the grasses. Can Sargent get me
a good clump of your Southern Bamboo & send it in damp earth in a box? With
affectionate regards to Mrs Gray I am dear Gray | y[ou]rs J D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Joseph Decaisne, French botanist, 1807--1882
2. Probably Mrs Evans--Lombe, the married name of Hooker's sister Elizabeth
Hooker.
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