[[1]]
Kew
Feb[ruar]y 1. 1865
Dear [Asa] Gray I have no fruit of Fothergilla, does its endocarp separate as coccis?
Feb[ruar]y 1. Yesterday I received your kind letter &c of Jan[uar]y 14 th (I will gladly do
my best with Parry's seeds).
I never got your letter "by last mail" by which you say you wrote to me.
I have not written to you for ages, having been desperately busy, with Gen[era]
Plant[arum] & sundries. I never worked harder than this winter. We have begun to
print part II of Gen[era] Plant[arum]. but my share of the work will want much
revising. I have had hard lines with the small & great calyciflorous orders, & so many
unsettled Genera & small orders[.]
I have pretty well done Cucurbitaceae but [Charles Victor] Naudina most kind &
valuable helper does not approve at all of my arrangement, unluckily he has none of
his own, proposes new without knowing the old, &, as in Melastomaceae, has most
unclear notions of groups. I adopt his tribes, but would unite
[[2]] Abobreae & Scitamineae Elatereae which cannot be kept apart as he proposes. -but these 3 tribes go very little way, the difficulty is to group the Cucurbits proper (his
Cucumcrineae[?]) of which I have proposed a practicable classification, & one which
I also think tolerably natural (as linear series go) -- he objects to it in toto & does not (I
think cannot) propose a better!
The genera must be swept up somehow & I shall await impatiently your verdict on
this part of my work.
I have done Loaseae, a queer lot! also the Passifloreae, & all the parietore gang. I
cannot keep Papayaceae out of Passifloreae -- Modecca & Acharia demand their
union. I am much perplexed what to do with Begonias. & what class[ificatio]n of
Cartesia[?] to adopt.
I have done Hamamelideae a good little order next [to] Saxifrageae, & might go into
it, but as well out. I am now at Bruniaceae -- which I suppose I must keep up.
Grubbia is certainly very close to Santalaceae & Corneae &c in all essentials -having consolidated coats to ovules &c &c & will not come near the Saxifrags or
Bruniaceae I think.*1
ENDNOTES
1. The letter appears to end here. It may be incomplete as there is no valediction or
signature present in extant pages. The letter is written in the hand of Sir Joseph
Dalton Hooker.
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