[[1]]
Kew (Ever so long ago begun)
June 26/[18]60
Dear [Asa] Gray
Picrasma Japonica = ailanthoides I think.
Your Amaroria somehow does not impress me generically. I suppose you are
reasonably 'certain' that flower & fruit &c all belong to same plants.*1 it is so awfully
like a monocarpellary Soulamea I have however grown markedly suspicious in
my old age. I saw Monroe yesterday--speaking so warmly of you. he is home on
6 months leaves. I fear we must--beg you to stop sending things by bookseller;
the last parcel (Wrights) they charged 10/for & would give no amount of the
expenses. Trupena is as big a cheat as any of these. My F[ather] says he has
told you how things can be sent gratis & he gets very riled about it.
In description of Holacantha you say 'Petala hypogyne'--& then describe a largish
disc. There is a terrible want of uniformity in use of "Hypogynous". I believe in
this case it is neither right nor wrong, but when one sees hypogyna to petals one
begins to cast about for perigynous allies. I am discussing arctic Flora & horribly
stumped
[[2]] by so many inosculating groups in America & Europe -- what a deal there is
to do in re--doing N[orth] temperate Flora. The Alsineae all are chaos, & I would
refer 1/2 of Stellarias to holostea, glauca & gramineae without compunction. I can
only account for peculiarity & paucity of Greenland Flora by plants because
having been driven out by glacial cold & never got back.
We have no specimen of Dupontia Cooleyi that I can find.
How does Narthecium americ[anum] differ from ossifragum.
I have yet another child, a boy*2--only think!
Bentham is to go on with Hong Kong Colonial Flora at once*3 -- The Treasury
gave £150 to author & take 100 copies.
You ask me about Owen's review of Darwin*4. I think it is the cunningest wrought
piece of special detraction I ever read.--In one page D[arwin] is a man of
property--in the next opposite D[arwin] puts Ray Club to expense of printing his
cirrhipeded [cirripedes i.e. barnacles]--& so on-- it almost requires a microscope
to see*5
I am amused to see how Editors Reviewers notice my Essay or let it alone according
to*6
*7You
owe me £5 for Horsfield's plants if worth having to you--if not[,] not. I
bought all Booth[']s Bhutan plants at [Thomas] Nuttall sale for £7. They are utter
rubbish.*8
ENDNOTES
1. The text which runs from here to 'Soulamea' is written vertically along the left
margin of page 1.
2. Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker (1860--1932).
3. Referring to Flora Honkongensis (1861),George Bentham.
4. Referring Sir Richard Owen's review of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in
the Edinburgh Review.
5. Part of manuscript appears to be missing. No period at the end of the
sentence and sentence appears to be unfinished.
6. Part of manuscript missing, sentence is unfinished and ink marks show
beneath text written vertically along right margin, page 2.
7. This text appears at the top of page 1 between the location/date and salutation
and overwrites the beginning of the letter in a diagonal fashion.
8. The letter appears incomplete due to lack of signature, incomplete thought at
the end of page 2 and ink marks indicating additional text below the text
referenced in Endnote 6.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.