[[1]]
Kew
Fe[bruar]y 26/[18]75
My dear [Asa] Gray
I have just received yours of 12th. This is another black week--dear Lyell *1 is gone.
He had been failing ever since the accident; last week was evidently his last, & on
Monday morning at 9 AM[?] he died quite peacefully & unconsciously.
I immediately got up a memorial signed by Fellows of the Royal, Linnean and
Geologgical [sic] for his burial in Westminster Abbey which indeed Stanley had as
good as offered & then shall we
[[2]] lay the grand old Philosopher,--the kind friend, & most generous sympathiser in
all my ups & downs -- He was indeed great, so truthful, so fearlessly honest, such a
hater of everything mean small or doubtful. To me the loss is very great--I loved him
so, as I did his wife. I told you of his brother's death, just 3 weeks ago.
I am distressed at your Rhumatism[sic], indeed I do know what that is! Though I
have hardly a trace of it now.
Never mind Mrs Sullivant, I quite forget whether I answered her & if I did, what I said
[[3]] probably I politely snubbed her as I did on the former occasion. By the way I
think I told her that I should exceed my official position if I complied with her request
-- but really I forget.
Your Request for Cat[alogues] of Sc[ientific] Papers had not come to the meeting of
[the] R[oyal] S[ociety] Library Committee, which met yesterday. I am glad that it had
not for I don't think I could have carried it, the applications from Museums & Herbaria
& small Societies with these adjuncts have been so numerous.
I have ordered Mr White to send your herb[ariu]m a copy as a present from me, which I
hope it will accept.--The proceeds of sale of
[[4]] Gay's Herb[arium] duplicates will far more than cover that! I have added a copy of
the Synops[is]. Filicum for your acceptance & Pl[ate] III Fl[ora]. B[ritish]. I[ndia].
We had a good many plants from Jamaica some 5 or 6 years ago, but whether what
you allude to is new it is impossible to say. Pray send them & if we do not want them
we can return them.
Bentham looks remarkably well but is still troubled with his old complaint, most
instantaneous sudden attacks of diarrhoea after days of no passage, which is his normal
condition!
Ever y[our]s aff[ectionate]ly J D Hooker [signature]
The Carruther's affair comes off immediately Nat[haniel]. Lindley is Counsel for the
King. *2
ENDNOTES
1. Sir Charles Lyell (1797 -- 1875), geologist.
2. This sentence is written at angles to Hooker's signature at the end of the letter. It
refers to Sir William Carruthers, keeper of the botanical collections of the Natural
History Museum. There was a proposal to form a single national herbarium, it
was disputed whether it should reside at Kew or the British Museum, of which the
Natural History Museum was then a branch.
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