[[1]]
H.M.S."Erebus" Simon's Bay Cape of Good Hope.
April 20th 1843.
My dear Father [William Jackson Hooker],
A Fortnight ago I wrote you a very long letter, begun before our arrival in this Port, &
sent with a Polar chart & sketch through Cap[tai]n Beaufort.*1 That letter gave you a
full, true, & particular account of our late Voyage to the Polar Sea, & a long gossip
upon other subjects in general. By what ship they went I cannot tell, as they went
from here to Cape Town. Since then I have written to my most kind friends Brown*2
& Lyell of Kinnordy,*3 Westwood,*4 Grandfather Turner!*5 -- Grandmother & Aunt
Mary (2 notes only), notes to Uncle & Aunt Palgrave,*6 & half finished one to my
Mother [Lady Maria Hooker], all of which will I hope in due time find their way to old
England. Except collecting a few seeds I have done next to nothing here, the
season is far too late for them, or anything else, everything is burnt up, & though
they call this the winter the weather is so hot that we are quite stifled; you cannot
conceive the lazyness[sic] & oppression it brings on me. -- The other day I
attempted to walk over the hills, & though well enough & strong enough, I could
scarcely crawl along, not being able to perspire freely, however I did put a few seeds
in papers, the very few still extant on any shrubs or plants which met my eyes. The
other day I rode up to Cape Town with 2 shipmates, & saw a great deal of Baron
Ludwig.*7 You may be sure I did all I could for Kew with him, & not without success. - I asked him very plainly, first of all, whether he did not think himself illtreated[sic] by
the Glasgow & other European gardens, & include you in the blame, of course he
could not well answer the latter part, but fully understood my explanation of your
connection with the Glasgow Gardens. . or rather non--connection with them; at the
same time, he said, that, not very long ago he had sent large & costly collections to
Glasgow & to [the] Duke [of] Devonshire
[[2]] but had not received, up to this time, even an acknowledgement of their receipt!!
though he had heard accidentally that they were much prized. You know how bad
this is, how very vexing. He promises & will send you things, & I gave my own &
your word of honor that you would thank & fully make him any proper return. . Old
Ludwig is you know proud of his titles & proud of what was wealth & has a very
proper & far more commendable pride in being a public patron of Science. -- He is
an excellent & kind hearted man & deserves better than those who do not know
Cape Town are inclined to suppose. Do not think he has been growling, or harping
on his grievances to me, far from it, what I say I could not help seeing & feeling for
his sake. . he never broached the subjects till hard pressed by me. -- In the first
place, except the gardens of Mr Veillet[sic] *8 a seedsman, Ludwig's are the only
decent private gardens in Cape Town, the only ones to which the public have access
at all, & the only place in the colony from where a Colonist g can receive (without
paying at Veillets[sic]) seeds or roots for his garden up the country. His gardens are
maintained at an immense expense to himself, all the soil is imported, all the trees
raised from seed, all the water raised, except some Town water for which he has to
pay the water tax & rate, even that is not allowed him. -- He has lost a good
Gardener, but bad man, Bowie,*9 the slaves are all emancipated, & is it not a great
credit for this man still to keep up these gardens? Which can afford him little
satisfaction but in knowing he is doing good by them. -- Constantia farms &
Ludwigsburg are the constant resort of Indians outward & homeward bound, & (now
that Verraux's Hottentot costumes &c is knocked up) there is literally no other resort
for amusement or instruction in this place. -- Any one may gain admission by
applying to him for a ticket, printed at his own expense, a line to his Gardener
ensures his getting what seeds or cuttings he asks for. . a red ticket gives a lady a
bouquet of flowers besides admission -- these have only to be asked for. Besides all
this
[[3]] he gives gratis information to all who introduce themselves to him. -- Ludwig is
older[,] poorer & in worse health than he used to be, but his zeal for his gardens
does not flag, he has plenty of noble Encephalartos to give you without his garden
being broken up & Elephantopus too.
It has struck me very forcibly during both visits to the Cape, that there is in the colony
a most remarkable want of a love for flowers, which I always thought -- so peculiarly
a dubtch Dutch taste, but so it is. . Look here, the only Eucalypti & Casuarinas I have
anywhere seen, are in Ludwig's Garden; but though they are planted by him for the
purpose, & are the best trees possible to break the violence of the S[outh] E[ast]
winds, still on the outside of the town, the road is some--times (where anything is)
planted with pudding headed Pines, which are blown at right angles of 45° with the
ground, beastly black in colour above, & covered with the red fine dust of the sand
below. -- Ludwig showed me the list of plants imported in one year into his garden,
all purchased by himself, they amounted to 1505 different kinds, one half were
destroyed by the wreck of the ship. In the colony he receives neither thanks or
praise, from England no contributions. .
I assured him of your interest in his gardens & all that sort of thing, so that at last I
thought him inclined to believe me, & then made him give me a list of what he most
wished for, they are chiefly ornamental shrubs &c. He is going at once to send you
things, this he promised me, & I promised him that you would send at once as far as
you could the following -- Double Camellias any at all, -- Double roses even some of
the choicer commonest as York & Lancaster. Pinks, Carnations, Piccatus, &
chrysanthemums. Any Cam Fuchsias, Verbenas & Petunias' of different sorts most
particularly. -- also the large new Queen Strawberry called Myatts seedling. . These
are specimens of the sorts of things he cares most for. I hope I am not pushing you
too hard, but after all I am only acting up
[[4]] to the instructions you gave me regarding Ludwig. . I did not like to ask too
much for you, after the liberal manner in which he promised to send any & every
thing he could spare, (for however vexed he is with the treatment he receives, it has
not checked his liberality) but told him that we wanted Cape Shrubs & Proteaceae
&c, as you told me in short. -- I want to see a dry stove at Kew with Proteaceae of
NH.[?] on one side & C. B. I.[?] on the other; what a noble series there might be of
Hakeas, Grevilleas, Banksia, Persoonia, Lambertia &c on one side & Aulax,
Leucadendron, Protea & Leucospermum &c on the other, both enjoying the same
soil & dry atmosphere, except once or twice when they would be drenched with
tropical rains.
Another person I have seen here is a Mr Upjohn,*10 Nursery & seedsman, he lives
about 4 miles out of Cape Town, & lives by collecting seeds & plants, of which he
tells me he has already sent collections for Kew, but chiefly of all the bulbs he had,
so I took some of them but all the seeds I could lay my hands on. -- I also got him to
procure for me a trunk of the Hemitelia capensis about 8 f[ee]t long, if you do not
want it I shall give it wherever you think proper, I have mixed his & my seeds
together for you[,] they appear very good. I also asked him if he would fill a ward's
case*11 for you, if you sent one out full of what he wanted, this he already acceded to
but knows nothing of the invention, & wants directions about it. I told him that you
would send them out, if you thought proper, full of what he wants most (the same
things as Ludwig does) & he that he must fill them again with terrestrial orchideae, &
especially Ferns of all species from the back of Table Mountain. A Mr Ardennes (an
Upholsterer) also called at my Hotel in Cape Town, Ludwig had told me of his having
been at Richmond & knowing something of you. When I saw him he told me that he
had not forgotten
[[5]] his promise about Encephalartos & Elephantopus but that it is not always easy to
get large things of the sort down from the interior. He had found a friend who was
procuring them, & that as he expected some immense ones down every day; he
hoped that they might be in time to go on board the Erebus. -- Wilmot*12 you will I
hope see, we are were very vexed & disappointed on finding that he had left this place
during our absence, & to be away during all our stay. You will I am sure be much
pleased with him. I hope that he received a long letter which I wrote him from
Sydney N[ew] S[outh] W[ales]. What a pity that Wallich*13 is up the country now & I
shall not see him. He is travelling with McLear*14 the Astronomer Royal, somewhere
up at Saldanah[sic] or S[aint] Helena Bay, I was much annoyed to be so near & not
to see him. Ludwig showed me a letter of his, by which he seems as enthusiastic as
ever, working away at plants. . How glad he would have been to see my father's son.
I knew his seal on his letter at once, though I have not seen it for 5 years. I wrote
him a short letter which Ludwig sent for Gov[ernmen]t dispatches, on the very day I
was at his house, expressing my great regret, telling him what you told me of the
Ward's cases he had sent to Kew, & how pleased you were again to be
corresponding with him. -- Ludwig says he looks old & shrivelled, very black faced,
with long hair & whiskers. I think I now see him with his collar turned down looking
as wild as a cat after a plant.
As you see, except Ludwig I have seen no one, both Harvey*15, Ludwig, Wallich
Krauss*16 & Teghe away. Bowie out of the way. Mr Jardine I only saw in the street
for a few minutes, he was then going out of town, & did not return during my stay, he
seemed a very nice person indeed. He is well known in Cape Town, as a man of
great merit. Perhaps you do not know that the Public Library is the
[[6]] best & kept in the best order of any Colonial library, whatever it may be. . It is a
very fine institution, requiring as it has got an able Librarian. -- Except Ludwig's
Garden I enjoyed nothing at Cape Town, for you would not care to hear how the
days were sultry without a breath of wind, the streets full of a fine red dust, so light
as to be always floating, or how often I had to go to the same shop to get things
nedyly changed &c. It was my intention to go up Table Mountain, but Ludwig has no
one who could take me up, & the heat was so scorching that all my enthusiasm fairly
oozed out of my fingers ends. . & except catering for Kew in cool large rooms,
Botany was at a stand still.
Jardine sent me down the other day two of your letters to him about Bowie &c. I do
not see how you could act better & Jardine thinks so do too: the man temporarily
abstains from drink, but you know that there is hardly such a thing as a reformed
drunkard. . When I saw him in 1841 he was evidently suffering from a debauch;
Ludwig said little about him but he must have done the gardens great injury, he was
certainly totally incapacitated from for the charge. The present Gardener, a Mr
Draper, seems a civil fellow but is apt to take whims into his head, he is no botanist
but very pompous & indulged me with a great deal of blarney about double Dahlias.
I did all I could to ingratiate for Kew['s] sake with him, & am sending him a present of
one of the two copies of Ward's book[.] I propose to encourage him.
April 23rd. We are all uncertainty about starting from this place. Two days ago
Captain Ross*17 received letters telling him that Belcher*18 in the "Samarang" was
bringing out letters despatches &
[[7]] instruments for us, that we were to wait for her arrival (daily expected), & start
the moment we receive them. -- She is full of supernumerary's for the flag ship here,
& China, & court martials are expected on her arrival -- as Ross neither wants to
meet Belcher nor to be on the courts, we trip anchor the moment she heaves in sight
(I should laugh to see the Admiral recall us). -- Belcher is you know K[nigh]t & CB
[Companion of the Order of the Bath] which is said to have made our man dreadfully
jealous, not to talk of his getting command of a fine 28 gun ship to survey with -They say that Belcher is so clever that the Admiralty cannot do without him, &
certainly a clever & hard working man deserves rewards, though his character in the
service is too notorious for comment. There are however more beauties (as they are
called) in the service than are supposed to be at home. Many of our most
gentlemanly, kind, amiable Capt[ain]s whom are brutes at sea.
Our Capt[ain] is still always to me most kind & attentive, indeed his whole conduct to
me & ever since we left has been quite uniform. & I have an immense deal to thank
him for; as you may suppose we have had one or two little tiffs, neither of us perhaps
being blessed with the best of tempers, but nothing can exceed the liberality with
which he has thrown open his cabin to me & made it my workshop often at no little
inconvenience to himself. . He is just the same now to me as ever he was, & will be I
doubt not till the end of the expedition, so that my situation is most comfortable, nor
would I change with any other ship in the service. . Do not repeat the above or I shall
be called out & shot, or tried by a court martial or something instead of writing a
Flora Antarctria some 9 months hence -- certain it is, that,(except to me,) our
Capt[ain] has been in a very pretty humor ever since the news of Belcher's honors
came, about a fortnight ago & everyone stands clear of him: you had better burn this
sheet.
[[8]] instruments for us, that we were to wait for her arrival (daily expected) & start
the moment we received them*18a. -- We are all aghast at the idea of instruments
coming out for us, they cannot mean to keep us out more than 4 or 5 months after
this time. I never gave Naturalists credit for any much modesty but the R[oyal] S.
Society gentlemen seem really quite unconscious of such a virtue being extant. Not
that I care much about how long they keep us out, as long as we can get ashore to
collect, but have no notion of going South again, -- or being roasted in Rio. harbour.
As it is, we have more instruments than we can use & are heartily sick of those we
have, the officers care nothing about magnetism but work hard for the credit of the
expedition, I suppose the R[oyal] S[ociety] will consider our double pay as our full
deserts.
The dates of your letters are so very long ago that I hardly know whether you will
care for answers to your letters those received the other day as however, it is begun to
pour with rain (after an unusual length of drought) &, I cannot do any thing better, I
shall read them over with you -- -- I am very much obliged for the plans & drawings
of the house which give me an admirable idea of the place. I had it all in my eye, but
the shape of the grounds &c from your former letters. . -- None of my letters went by
the Echo; -- what delayed my first V[an] D[iemen's L[and] [Tasmania] letter so long I
cannot conceive. . -- I remember losing the little compass quite well on Ben Lawers.
I was very fond of it. You gave it me when quite a child. I had also marked on it the
direct ascent of Ben Lomond; I am delighted that it was brought back -- You must not
work too hard with your plants & library till I come home. Rather get on in the
gardens which is more healthy, & in which I shall not at first be of the slightest
assistance to you, from downright ignorance; I will get up as much back work as you
like in the Books & Herbarium. I do wish I had
[[9]] known that you wanted seed when in V[an] D[iemen's] L[and] for I could have
got lots of them for nothing & collected others. Gunn*19 will not however forget us. I
shall write to him & to Mcleay before leaving this, to keep them stirring -- Thank you
for the recipe of Goldlys preservative fluid. . I shall try it at once. Many thanks for the
odd books you sent me -- 2 vols of Geographical Society Trans[actions]. Quarterly
reviews & Edinburgh &c, on board ship these are as useful as whole works.-- I am
astonished to find how ill my dear Grandfather was about the time you left Glasgow.
-- I have often thought how harassed you must have been during the first half of that
year. . Those are all gone now, & we have too much to be thankful for to murmur.
Our life is to me begun afresh, not without new sorrows to come, but let us hope with
the same blessed results, which is the only consolation for deaths of friends. Your
misfortunes were indeed accumulated then. A new leaf is now turned over, & we for
the future will look back on the past as happy chastenings, which were meant & have
doubtless turned out for the best, though we may not & shall not see how. Gardner*20
has written most kindly to me but I do not think I can possibly answer him from here.
I am amused to think that you had Montgomery*21 staying with you; you may
remember poor Willy's [William Dawson Hooker] & my dislike to him from the first,
not that I ever did or do care one straw about him, but wishing a better spirit for him. .
I certainly look on him as nothing but a very simple fellow, who, like Sandford,
thought that the same oratory which charmed Glasgow folk & Paisleys bodies ,
would be digestible where real talent is to be found. Have you read the review of
"Luther" in the Athenaeum, it is really terrible. I never think of the man abstractedly
from Mr Almond,*22 when I think of that excellent man I remember his having a
plague near him in Mr Montgomery. --
[[10]] I do not understand your not getting the Kerg[eulen Island] cabbage to grow. I
have had 50 plants of it from seed -- I had it growing in a bottle! (hanging to the after
rigging) on a tuft of Leptostomum, during all our second cruize[sic] in the Ice. . &
brought it alive to Falklands. It was sprouting before the Cape Horn plants went
home, from seeds I scattered under the little trees. We used to amuse ourselves
planting it here & there where we go. I shall fill a Wards case with Lyall (it is the
Terror's 2nd case) at S[ain]t Helena, with native plants, & sow the seeds among it.
Try it again in a cool place, very wet & shaded, in a black vegetable mould like peat,
do not bury it but lay it on the surface. -- Depend upon it they will grow if cool & damp
enough.
As to Wright, Whitington & hoc genus omni*23 the less you have to do with them the
better, we have heard still more about them here. -- You astound me in what you
say of the R[oyal] S[ociety] wishing to carry things with a high hand, & of Gray's *24 (of
all other botanical nonentities), proposition, that the things should be published
before the return of the Expedition. Of course you tell me this in a private letter & I
take no further notice of it, but if I hear of it ashore so shall Mr Gray. I am no great
man & very much his junior in years & wisdom, but I will not stand to be trifled with
by him or all the R[oyal] S[ociety] at his back. I have no wish for a row, or still less to
be on bad terms with any man at all, I hope never to have an enemy, especially a
Scientific one, there is however a medium in all things. I am very glad you & Brown
took no notice of it. On this account I am very glad that I have reserved large
budgets of Bot[anical] notes. -- let them publish & I'll review with my notes written on
the spot along side of me. Except that the man had a party the whole affair is too
contemptible to irritate me -- nor am I the least annoyed about it. I am all right in Mr
Brown's hands; their publishing would make my fame, the injustice of the thing would
bring me into notice & every
[[11]] additional word I added to their descriptions would tend to bring throw their
book into the background. Poor Gray! I dare say he thought he was doing all for the
best. He would catch a tartar in our Cap[tain] if his motion had been carried. It
would be much better to exclude such men from the council [of the] R[oyal] S[ociety]
for these errors of judgement emanating from their weak heads, will certainly
produce serious confusion. They are well meaning I do not doubt, & much to be
pitied had but really science must not suffer on that account. Do any of them drink?
I think you like my Falk[lands] Isl[ands] Cryptog[amia]. -- There are only 2 orchideae
in the Isl[an]ds that I ever heard of, one allied to Chloreae the other to Calypso[,] the
large solitary flowered Juncus is perhaps J[uncus] Magellanicus, without [doubt] he
Wright means the Sisyrinchium fililolium. The Schizcea I used all my eyes to find, but
could not, nor hear anything of it. The Tussac is all right now I suppose. -- Gaimarda
I sent plenty of & roots in the small case. . Astelia do. do.[ditto?]. Nanodea I have
sent, it is scattered & not easily found.. Primula I have 500 dried specimens of! -- Is
not the Pratia a different species from the Auckland Isl[and] one? -- Nertera
depressa is not the Bay of Isl[ands] plant though the true one. -- Azorella
lycopod[ioides] is pretty common. . I sent tap roots entire, but very small of Bolax. All
the Ranunculaceae I found & sent home -- except Hamadryas? -- of which my
descript[ion] is very imperfect. I think my collections will answer most of your queries
except Schizcea & Valariana. -- Veronica decuss[ata] is no more imported to the
Falk[land]s, than I was a native. -- I have been told it grows 8 -- 10 f[ee]t & no higher,
Wright is an exaggerator. I gathered every Fucus that my poor eyes & lazy industry
allowed me. What you mean by saying that Wright brought none but F. bacciferus I
cannot tell, he may have got it on the Florida banks or in the Gulfstream, never in the
Falkl[and]s. -- Fucus bacciferus does not grow there, what Gaudichaud *25
[[12]] means by including it I cannot tell -- If I can get a good specimen of it here I will
preserve it entire. . We only saw it at sea & there abundantly -- So much for your
Falk[land] Isl[an]d queries. -- It is shame that Lemann*26 did not get the Linn[ean]
Soc[iety]: how came Brown & you & Lindley*27 to be beaten so. -- Poor Lambert! I
mentioned his death before. . I sent sketches both of M[oun]t Erebus & M[oun]t
Sabine home, I think Sabine's name was afterwards shifted to another Mt though, so
that my M[oun]t Sabine will be M[oun]t something else. -- I hear that all the N[ew]
Z[ealand] company have gone to the dogs. . I think that from what my letters said
you would expect as much. (if you credited my statements). I have told Westwood to
take any duplicates of my V[an] D[iemen's] Land] Insects for description or drawings,
so you will please to let him; he is an honourable man & it was very kind of him to
write to me & go & look over my Insects. -- Remember me most kindly to the
Christy's to all of them, & to John & Alexander very particularly; I am glad you see
them sometimes, I did not know before they had left Clapham. I like you to tell me
the places you dine at so that I may form an idea of your Society. Sir Rob[er]t
Inglis*28 character is very high as an M. P. & though rather far off his friendly
invitation is an honor, I wish you knew Wilmot's father, from all I have heard of him, -You are quite right in not recommending the Crown to send out a Kew collector. It is
more expensive than is worth while, as they think themselves R[oya]l Botanists, they
do not care to collect for other Gardens even for remuneration & so all the expense
falls on Kew. Far more may be done by sending out as you have done a collector on
account of other nursery men, whose treasures Kew will share. There are so many
cheaper & as good ways of getting plants & the great expense of Kew must be in
reinstating its houses & grounds. One active corres--
[[13]] ponding Botanist will do far more than one who trusts all to paid collectors &
does not correspond at all. Reforms are particularly required in the Colonial
Gardens, which were intended to be branch Botanic Gardens & whose duty it is to
send plants to Kew, but Sydney is a vegetable garden & McLeay's*29 beats it hollow,
though quite recent. I am amused to think of you a[t] Woburn with the ex ministers
who have done us so much good. It was very kind of L[or]d Minto *30 to think & ask
about me, should you see him again you will tell him with my duty that I do not forget
the courteous manner his L[or]dship received me when I took the Duke of Bedford's
letter to him, nor how much the Exped[ition] is indebted to the liberality of his
Lordship's self & coadjutors then in office. -- All I hear of Sir W[illiam] Symonds*31 is
so good that, I am quite pleased you are so intimate there & with Lady Symonds, I
am very proud of (Maria & my) Skye's pup being accepted by him. -- I shall get a
good breed out of that dog when I get home, for it is really a valuable dog, & I have
seen many who w[oul]d like a real Skye terrier. . Mcleay w[oul]d give me a Cuban
blood hound for one. Many thanks for your care of it. As to that paper of mine in the
Tasmanian Journal, it was never written or intended to be printed, Gunn promised
me it should not, & I wrote it under those conditions, only to be read, as it is they
have made some strange mistakes in printing about "Ventricles of Stumps" & what
not. I have written Gunn rather sharply about it, but after all poor fellow I daresay he
put it among the other things in the hurry & confusion of leaving Hobart. . I have had
letters asking me what the passages mean &c. Very pleasant is it not? After being
printed too. As to Lady Franklin's*32 gardener I w[oul]d drop the subject if I were
you, she plagued me enough about it
[[14]] & I thought she would have explained all about it, especially by Mr Ewing. I
told her that £100 was no great sum. -- I have heard since that nothing further has
been done in the gardens. . The situation is noble in every respect: but she must
secure colonial patronage for a continuancy[sic], or else it is worth no man's while to
go out there -- I should offer to her to put an advertisement in the Gardeners
Gazette & offer yourself to be the referee for all information she has to give.
I certainly did not remember having directed any of my letters to Scotland after
hearing you had gone to Kew. You think it strange that I still directed to Scotland,
but I think that perhaps I was right in doing so, I had no official report of any thing but
your appointment, word of your having given up your Professorship, or of your
superseding Aiton,*33 or anything further, than that you had received an appointment
which I had no idea when you would be able or allowed to act up to. After all,
supposing it to be forgetfulness, in one of your letters you sign yourself as "Your
affec[tionate] Son W. J. H."! -- Certainly I am very sorry you were disappointed, & it
was my fault entirely -- such faults are only seen when pointed out. . The truth is I do
not recall the circumstance, if it was not from carelessness it must have been from
what I have stated above, at least I suppose so.
You have now quite explained the mystery about my drawings which hung over your
& my mother's Falk[land] Isl[an]d letters. -- Of course the honor is far too flattering to
allow me to be angry, even had I cause. . I often speak testily when I do not mean it,
as you know; & hope I said nothing in any former letter that gave offence, but must
say I was then annoyed to hear that my "drawings & letters were known far & wide."
-- We did take possession of the land (landing on the little Isl[an]d) in the name of
Her M[ost] G[racious] M[ajesty] Q[ueen] Victoria & so we did last Jan[uar]y 6 on
another
[[15]] little Isl[an]d. I wish his R[oyal] H[ighness] much joy of Her M[ajesty]s
acquisitions, nothing but Her wish will get me near them again, for I suppose if the
Queen tells you, go you must nolens volens.*34 Their Majestys'[sic] interest &
attention is most flattering to a poor Ass[istan]t Surgeon, beyond everything flattering
-- It is only by your letter that I see the old problem of the level of the Dead Sea at
last solved, & by Sir W[illia]m Symonds son -- 1280 f[ee]t you say below the
Mediter[ranean]! -- During our stay there was no communication whatever between
the Bay & Auckland, or I should have written to his sons, they have Gov[ermen]t
situations there I believe. . Give my most respectful comp[lement]s to Sir W[illia]m
Burnett*35 when you see him, I feel much flattered by his kind enquiries after me. .
My triangular capsulated Polytrichum from N[ew] Z[ealand] proved to be a Dawsonia
capsulated one. . I have a far finer one from Hermite Isl[and]s sent home in my
collection to you. -- I never saw the Sphaeria Robertsii caterpillars, though from the
natives I received recent soft specimens of the animal & plant, which I put into spirits.
The animal bury's[sic] itself at one season & during another the fungus germinates,
filling up the caterpillar with vegetable tissue. I firmly believe all that Colenso*36
wrote sent & told you about its development, he is a most cautious & accurate
observer. I went to the Lake Manu in the Interior you asked about, & collected a new
Leptostomum & other things, it had however no remarkable features either of
Geography or vegetation. -- In another letter you ask about the Sph[aeria] Robertsii
& suspect Colenso wrong. I am very loth[sic] to doubt Colenso, there are so few
large moths in N[ew] Z[ealand] that he is not likely to be wrong. You also call it the
Balataes caterpillar -- now this caterpillar & Fungus is always found under tree
Ferns. . Edgerly is of course all wrong, there is no doubt but it was a caterpillar.
Send one (I surely sent plenty home if not I have plenty on board)[,]
[[16]] send one to Westwood, he is an acute observer. It strikes me that all the
substance of the caterpillar is absorbed, or transformed, but thought Westwood
would be glad to examine it thoroughly letting him send the acc[oun]t to your journal
or the Lin[nean] Soc[iety] Trans[actions]. . The or a caterpillar is certainly seen alive in
spring summer, the fungus found in winter: there are few Lepidoptera in the Isl[an]d,
very few. -- I hope you have published the noble caterpillar Fungus I sent home from
Mr Taylor of Waimate, his story of it is very distinct. I have & do give none of the
numbers of Bot[anical] Journ[al] away, only whole books, except duplicates of first 5
N[umber]s to Baron Ludwig.
If possible I shall write to all at home before leaving this[.] With best love to them all[.]
Believe me | Ever your most affectionate Son | Jos D Hooker [signature]
Sir W[illia]m J. Hooker
R[oya]l Gardens Kew
London.
ENDNOTES
1. Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774--1857). Irish hydrographer and officer in
the British Royal Navy, who created the Beaufort Scale. In 1829, he was appointed
British Amiralty Hydrographer and used his position & prestige to act as a
"middleman" for many scientists of that time. Overcoming many objections, Beaufort
obtained Government support for the Antarctic voyage of 1839--1843 by James
Clark Ross.
2. Robert Brown (1773--1858). Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made an
important contribution to Botany largely through his pioneering use of the
microscope. Discoverer of Brownian motion.
3. Charles Lyell of Kinnordy, was the father of Sir Charles Lyell, a British lawyer and
the foremost geologist of his day and author of Principles of Geology.
4. John Obadiah Westwood (1805--1893). English entomologist and archaeologist
also noted for his artistic talents. He was President of the Entomological Society of
London (1852--1853).
5. Dawson Turner (1775--1858) of Yarmouth was an English banker, botanist and
antiquary. He was Joseph Hooker's maternal grandfather.
6. Francis Palgrave (née Cohen). Joseph Hooker's maternal uncle by marriage. A
historian, who took the name of Palgrave upon conversion to Christianity. He was
married to Elizabeth Turner, daughter of Dawson Turner.
7. Carl Ferdinand Heinrich von Ludwig (1784--1847). German born pharmacist,
businessman & patron of the natural sciences. He was noted for having started
Cape Town's first botanic garden.
8. Charles Mathurin Villet(te) (1778--1856). A Frenchman by birth. He was an
"omnivorous collector of curiosities." He opened a business trading in seeds, bulbs &
herbarium specimens, as well as insects, live & stuffed birds. In 1819 he established
a menagerie and botanic garden. Herbarium specimens he collected on Table
Mountain he sent to Dr. W. J. Hooker at Glasgow.
9. James Bowie (1789--1869) trained as a gardener and botanical collector. He
collected plants in Brazil and South Africa. The value of his collections was reduced
by the fact that many of the localities he gave for his plants were wrong. In 1822 he
was recalled to England because he lacked application. After his return to South
Africa in1827 although he was intellectually active he was afflicted by problems with
alcohol.
10. Joseph Upjohn (1799--1883). Seedman, florist and plant collector, cultivated
plants at his nursery near Cape Town, and collected plants, bulbs and seeds in the
wild. He exported large quantities of bulbs and seeds to nurseries in England and to
J. D. Hooker at Kew.
11. The Wardian Case was an early type of sealed protective container for plants, an
early version of the Terrarium. Used to protect plants during long sea journeys it was
invented by Nathaniel Bagham Ward in about 1829.
12. Lieutenant Frederick Marow Eardley Wilmot (1812--1877) was an engineer
officer. He was selected for magnetic work on Ross's expedition, being left in Cape
Town to build a magnetic observatory. He eventually rose to the rank of MajorGeneral in the Royal Artillery.
13. Nathaniel Wallich (1786 --1854). Danish surgeon who in 1815 was made
superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. When he returned to England in
1847, he had done immense work as a botanical explorer, and brought back vast
collections, the final distribution of which was completed by Hooker.
14. Sir Thomas MacLear (1794--1879). Irish born surgeon. He pursued a keen
amateur interest in astronomy and was appointed Director of the Royal Observatory
at the Cape in 1833. The Directors of the Royal Observatory were known as His or
Her Majesty's Astronomers at the Cape.
15. William Henry Harvey (1811--1866). Irish botanist who specialised in algae.
16. Christian Ferdinand Frederick Krauss (1812--1890). German scientist, traveller
and collector. He travelled widely in South Africa collecting flora and fauna.
17. Sir James Clark Ross (1800--1862). British naval officer and explorer known for
his exploration of the polar regions. Captain of the Antarctica expedition of 18391843, comprising the vessels HMS 'Erebus' and 'Terror'. Joseph Dalton Hooker was
the expedition's assistant surgeon on the 'Erebus'.
18. Sir Edward Belcher (1799--1877). Nova Scotian, British naval officer and
explorer. He made the first British survey of Hong Kong Harbour.
18a. Hooker has repeated the first line of page 7 here, seemingly so that page 7
could be destroyed as he suggests, thus omitting only the personal passages about
Belcher and Ross contained on page 7.
19. Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808 --1881). Botanist, public servant and politician who
spent much of his life in Tasmania. An energetic botanist and traveller he became a
plant collector for William Hooker. He went on many local expeditions in Tasmania
with Joseph Hooker who stopped there during the Ross expedition.
20. George Gardner (1812--1849). A Glasgow man who studied under Sir W.J.
Hooker. He journeyed to Brazil in 1836 and returned with a vast collection. In 1844
he was appointed Superintendent of the Ceylon [Sri Lanka] Botanical Garden.
21. Rev. Robert Montgomery, minister of St. Jude's Glasgow.
22. Rev. George Almond, minister of St. Mary's Episcopal Chapel, Glasgow.
23. Hoc genus omni translates as "and all this kind."
24. John Edward Gray (1800--1875). Naturalist. He joined the staff of the British
Museum Zoology Department in 1820, becoming keeper in 1840--1874.
25. Charles Gaudichaud--Beaupré (1789-1854). French botanist. He studied
pharmacology, chemistry and herbology. He served as botanist on a circum-global
expedition from 1817--1820. He is known for his collections in Australia.
26. Charles Morgan Lemann (1806--1852). English botanist who collected a large
number of plant specimens, famously from Madeira and Gibraltar.
27 John Lindley (1799--1865). English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. He was
responsible for preventing Kew Gardens being abolished in 1840.
28. Sir Robert Harry Inglis (1786--1855). English Conservative politician, noted for
his High Church views.
29. Alexander McLeay (1767--1848). Leading member of the Linnean Society, fellow
of the Royal Society and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He
was Colonial Secretary for New South Wales. His chief natural history interest was
entomology, principally Lepidoptera.
30. Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 2nd Earl of Minto (1782--1859). British
diplomat and Whig politician.
31. William Samuel Symonds (1818--1887). English geologist and clergyman.
Father of Lady Hyacinth Jardine nee Symonds, Joseph Hooker's second wife.
32. Lady Jane Franklin (1791--1875). Early Tasman settler, traveller and second wife
of Sir John Franklin the explorer. She was trying to establish a botanical garden near
Hobart Town, to which she gave the name Ancanthe.
33. William Townsend Aiton (1766--1849) British botanist. Director of RBG Kew
from 1793--1841, also laid out the gardens at the Royal Brighton Pavilion and
Buckingham Palace.
34. Nolens volens translates as "whether willing or unwilling."
35. Sir William Burnett (1779--1861). British physician who served as Physician-General of the Royal Navy.
36. William Colenso (1811--1899). Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand,
employed as a printer, he was also a botanist, explorer and politician. He assisted
with the production of the New Testament in Maori. He collected many specimens of
the New Zealand flora now at Kew Gardens.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.