[[1]]
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
April 5 [18]85
My dear [Asa] Gray *2
Your welcome letter arrived last week, & was a relief to us, for we were getting
anxious to hear how you & Mrs Gray bore the journey. Well -- all's well so far, but
you have both had a hard time of it & your senses of enjoyment must be keen indeed
to go through so much fatigue under the troublesome coughing: -- which has pursued
you both throughout. I do indeed trust that California will set you both up, & that we
shall find you both flourishing when we cross the Atlantic to visit you. This I assure
you we have still in our minds, & only today when Hyacinth *3 said, can we not go to
Switzerland with the children this Autumn. I sternly answered -- no. We must lay by
for a return trip to the Grays next year if possible! -- & she meekly
[[2]] assented, or rather joyfully consented. She has made an excellent recovery &
baby flourishes upon her resources but has had a bad time of it from vaccination.
The lymph was very fresh & the arm has been 6 weeks open & will not be healed for
some days yet. -Your account of the view in Maexica Mexico & the Cypresses makes me quite green
with envy.
I wonder when this will catch you, in South California I suppose
I have no particular news. Bentham's *4 affairs not wound up yet: nor likely to be for
some months, as there is much property to sell. I am puzzled to know what to do
with all the family things he left to me, -- I wish some Benthamophilist[sic] would offer
me £1,000 for the lot. -- Portraits, maps, several medals, autographs -- and his
genus oeuvre -- there is all Jeremy's *5 correspondence I suppose -- piles of letters,
from all manner of people to him, apparently never opened since his death. & bound
volumes of Sir Samuel's *6 correspondence
[[3]] &c &c. I have no time to open them even & no wish. I wish to goodness he had
left them to his niece.
Most of my spare time goes to the Flora of British India. Part XII[,] which should
have finished the work will be out soon & takes in Anacardiaceae only! The fact is
that both the number of species has exceeded my estimates, & at the desire of many
Indian botanists I have expanded quotations of works &c. far beyond my original
intention. I have completed down to Aristolochiaceae or all but, & am now at Piper. - by far the worst genus I ever had to do with, & I shall have to assign lots of
Miquel's*7 & A. DCs *8 species to the limbo of the unknowable. -- I am dissecting away
at the flowers daily. Polygonum was a hard task, but I think I have squared them all
up. We have your P. virginianum in the Himalayas, as perhaps I told you.
Dyer *9 loyally takes the garden work, leaving me only the Arboretum. & if I had not
so much family & general Scientific matters to attend to I should do very well. -- No
appointment is yet made to the
[[4]] Glasgow Chair. I told you of the mess the Gov[ernmen]t had got into by
appointing McNab before Balfour *10 had resigned & without waiting for other
candidates to come forward. As I was told that they proposed to have done this on a
strength of a testimonial which I gave to McNab -- for Aberdeen ages ago, I went to
the Home Minister & called an interview on the subject -- in which I explained all &
proposed the claims of Bower *11 & Ward as by far the best men. McNab began well
but has disappointed all his friends[,] does no work & makes no botanists -- nor has
the "presence" necessary for conducting a large class of Medical Students.
The Kilimanjaro Expedition is rather a failure as to Botanical results. We hope better
things for Im Thurn's *12 ascent of Roraima -- but the poor fellow has been literally on
his back with fever ever since! We look anxiously for his collection.
My family news is chequered. My sister Maria *13 has been very ill in body & mind
but is better -- her family drive her distracted, happily she is in most excellent hands.
-- There is a lull in the affairs of the children. Mr Newman is supposed to be at San
Francisco where he has opened an establishment for instructing new arrivals in
farming! If in the way of doing hearing please remember the *1
ENDNOTES
1. This letter is incomplete and bears no signature, but is written in the hand of
Joseph Dalton Hooker.
2. Asa Gray (1810--1888), is considered the most important American botanist of the
19th century. He was instrumental in unifying the taxonomic knowledge of the plants
of North America. Gray, Hooker and Darwin were lifelong friends and colleagues.
Hooker and Gray conducted research for Darwin.
3. Lady Hyacinth Hooker, neé Symonds then Jardine (1843 --1921). Joseph
Hooker's second wife, they married in 1876.
4. George Bentham (1800 --1884). British botanist who donated his herbarium of
more than 100,000 specimens to Kew. He spent 27 years with Joseph Hooker in
research and examination of specimens for the work Genera Plantarum.
5. Jeremy Bentham (1748--1832). British philosopher, jurist & social reformer and
George Bentham's uncle. He is regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism. A
political radical he advocated individual and economic freedom, separation of state
and church, equal rights for women, and right to divorce. Also the abolition of
slavery, the death penalty & physical punishment. He was an early advocate of
animal rights .
6. Sir Samuel Bentham (1757--1831).Noted English mechanical engineer, credited
with numerous innovations particularly related to naval architecture, including
weapons. He was George Bentham's father.
7. Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (1811--1871). Dutch botanist, whose main focus
of study was the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Through correspondence he
amassed a large collection of Indian plants.
8. Augustin Pyramus (1778 --1841) or Alphonse Pyramus (1806 -- 1893), de
Candolle co-authors of the botanical work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni
Vegetabitis. This work is often referred to just as 'DC'.
9. Sir William Turner Thiselton--Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in
the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He married Hooker's
eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
10. Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853--1922). Scottish botanist who held the chair of
Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University from 1879 to 1885.
11. Frederick Orpen Bower (1855--1948). British Botanist who was appointed
Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow from 1885 --1925.
12. Sir Everard Ferdinand im Thurn (1852--1932). Author, explorer, botanist,
photographer and British colonial administrator. In December 1884 he led the first
successful expedition to the summit of Mount Roraima in Venezuela.
13. Maria Mcgilvray née Hooker. Joseph Hooker's sister.
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