[1]]
P.S. *1
Dearee
Feb[ruary] 15 [1848]
My dear Father my your letters of Dec[embe]r including my mother's of the 19th
came to hand to day -- many thanks to you & to her. It is now very late & I have
knocked off writing to Frances Henslow others that I may explain to you about the
Calcutta Gardens. It is a subject I thought I had repeatedly talked over with you to
the effect that when I went to the Himalayah[sic] or any place from whence to send
live plants I should forward send the collections to [Hugh] Falconer at Calcutta *2, who
would retain a set of the duplicates & forward the rest cost free to Kew. This plan I
proposed to you when you urged the difficulty of sending live plants even from
Sea--Ports in India to England & I agreed that it wd. be impossible to send these
from the upper provinces dried to England. I shall abide by your decision in this
case,-- you may remember the advantages I urged in the plan proposed to be the
following & that they were advantages in my eyes
1. I save the heavy expense of land carriage to Calcutta.
2. That of carriage to England
[[2]] 3. I have the garden as an active & careful agent in Calcutta at no expense.
4. They will remove what may die (& will die) during the passage down forwarding
only what is sound.
Regarding Falconer he always was & will be queer & odd, dilatory careless &
difficult to understand, but he & I were very great friends for two years & except
Owen, Lyell, Darwin[?] & Forbes I had few or no better friend; his reputation too is
the very highest but he wants being kept in order always, & I never let him be odd
to me without explaining himself. I always felt sure he had a very sincere regard for
me however difficult he & his regards were to manage, & to appreciate. I feel sure
that F[alconer]. will do little or nothing here but that must be between ourselves. He
is much to be pitied & himself deeply regrets pain[?] taken to post daily[?] his
geology discoveries. This has I believe affected his temper & manners & I know it
to have pressed on his mind & health.
Your Ever most affect[ionate] Son Best love & thanks to Mary, Mother Jos D.
Hooker [signature]
Feb 16th 5AM We are off up the Soane & this must go. *3 The plate of Blume sent to
Falconer was one of my incomplete copy of Bijdugur [Bidjegur] -- yours is as
complete as ever (incomplete all are).
ENDNOTES
1. Letter marked post script. Probably the continuation of letter dated 11 Feb 1848,
see letter project ID JHC21.
2. The current name of the city of Calcutta is Kolkata.
3. The text from here to end of letter is written down the left hand side of the paper,
at right angles to the rest of the text.
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