[[1]]
THE ROYAL SOCIETY,
BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON. W.
Kew
Oct[ober] 20th [18]77
Dear Brian *1
Here I am at last after a very interesting run across the States & botanizing in the
Rocky M[ountain]s Utah Nevada & California. I think that Gray & I have made out
the main features of the [North] S[outh] Plant distribution to some effect; & I have
enlarged my knowledge greatly. Thanks very much to his intimate knowledge of the
genera & species, his wide sympathies & his unwearying determination that I should
improve every moment of my time. Gray
[[2]] is a man th of extraordinary energy although 5 or 6 years my senior is the
younger of the two! Have you read his "Darwiniana"? if not I will send it you as this
would give you some notion of the breadth of his views & the charm of his style. Mrs
Gray is a very quiet observant & highly cultivated lady, with quiet grace & charm of
manner. She was a Loring, one of the old New England families & who are amongst
the wealthiest & most "spirituelle" of the New England families.
I had no time to visit the Eastern States, & could do no more than pay a very few
visits & receive[?] calls from
[[3]] the Bostonians. The Longfellows, Emersons, Lowells, Lorings, Nortons & other
flowers of their literary world. Mrs[?] Gray gave a reception to some 300 of the rank
& file of Science Literature & Art during my stay & I went to several private dinners &
a club or two -- but my few days in Boston were used much as my Darjeeling days
were with you, getting my collection & notes into order till the the day I sailed. I
spent no time in New York or Philadelphia, only passing through them. Nor did I
even see Washington, Baltimore, Virginia. Altogether I travelled about 7000 miles in
15 States but long strethes stretches were
[[4]] in railways sleeping at night in Pullman cars. -- On the return from California we
were 7 days & nights on the rail with only one stop for a night (at Niagara). Most of
my collection have arrived, but two larger cases will follow me.
No one place can nor all together had the interest of concentrated in Sikkim & as to the
M[ountain] scenery it is a bagatelle compared with any little bit of the Himalayas or
Alps. Whether as regards beauty -- bulk, grandeur or interest. The Rocky
M[ountains] are a poor sub[stitute] & the Sierra Nevada, though incomparably finer
are not an imposing range. -- they straddle too much across a broad base. There
are exceptional features of Extraordinary grandeur
[[5]] as the Yosemite Valley. That which there is not the like any where. As to the
Coniferous arborescent vegetation, in the matter of conifers California beats all the
rest of the coniferous world put together. The gigantic stature of many species is the
incredible age of some & the prodigious extent of the forests of such big trees is quite
bewildering. You may travel for weeks in forests of some 8 or 10 Pines, Spruces,
Silver Landles Firs &c of which most of the species are never under 150 & often 250
feet high & 20 -- 30 ft in girth & this quite exclusive of the "Big trees" of the Americas
(Welllingtonia
[[6]] of our garden) of the Sierra Nevada & the Red Wood (both are species of one
genus Sequoia) of the coast ranges, which habitually exceed 250 ft in height & 30 -100 [ft] in girth! -- Both these trees certainly attain 2000 years in age as computed by
the rings of growth, & how many hundred years you may add for their persistence
after growth has ceased or all but ceased it is of course impossible to say. -- Just
fancy 3 generations taking you back beyond the Egyptian histories. Is not this a
thousand times a more instructive proof of the antiquity of the modern existing
condition of the
[[7]] globe than any calculations based on Geological speculation or even
arborianical[sic] data. -- & the Big trees & Red Woods are not the only instance of
this age. A gigantic Jinuper Juniper & a dwarf Pine both trees of great altitudes, are quite
as old.
Now I must turn to & tackle my work. Dyer *2 has done uncommonly well in my
absence, & I find everything here as it ought to be. He is off for his holiday tomorrow
with Harriet.
I have not been to the R[oyal] S[ociety] as yet, & do not know what the rules are
about your admission -- but if there is any good reason for your delaying to come up
for
[[8]] admission you have only to write for extension of time. I hope however on the
grounds that you will get to town & see us.
It was so kind of Mrs Hodgson to write to me after visiting Harriet. I hoped to have
answered her from America, but I had to keep up my correspondence with so many
people, that I put it off day after day till it was not done at all to my regret.
Now my dear Brian I must say good bye -- hoping to see you up soon. I am head &
ears in unpacked miscellanea & driven wild by arrears of family & all other duties.
With love to Mrs Hodgson | Ever y[our] affec[tionate] | J. D. Hooker [signature]
*5I
had a very bad passage across, counting gales the whole way, but I had 2
pleasant companions. Sir David Wedderburn *3 an old friend, & a brother *4 in the
Bombay C[olonial] S[ervice] to whom I took an immense liking. They were going to
their mother's Lady W[edderburn] who has a small propert[y] that marches with the
Gambier Parrys.*6 They are relatives of the Colvile's.
*7 I
hear that Julia Carpenter is to be married to a gentleman in Argyleshire. I have
no particulars.
ENDNOTES
1. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801--1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist
working in India and Nepal where he was a British civil servant. Joseph Hooker
stayed at Hodgson's house in Darjeeling periodically during his expedition to India
and the Himalayas 1847 --1851 and named one of his sons after him.
2. Sir William Thiselton--Dyer, KCMG FRS FLS (1843--1928), was a leading British
botanist, and the third director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He was married
to Harriet Anne Hooker, the daughter of Joseph Hooker.
3. Sir David Wedderburn 3rd baronet (1835-- 882), was a British politician called to
the Scottish bar in 1861 and a Captain in the Midlothian Yeomanry. He became a
Liberal MP for South Ayrshire in 1868.
4. Sir William Wedderburn 4th baronet (1838--1819), was a civil servant in India and
a politician. He entered the Indian Civil Service in Bombay in 1860. He was
considered a great friend of the Indian Progressive Movement and presided at the
Indian National Congress, 1889. He tried to solve the rift between Hindus and
Muslims.
5. This post script continues up the left hand margin of the last page 8.
6. Thomas Gambier Parry (18816 -- 1888), was an English artist and art collector,
many of whose paintings and objets d'art were given to the Courtauld Institute in
1966. His father and grandfather were both directors of the British East India
Company. He was a wealthy orphan, who, when he grew up devoted his inherited
wealth to good works.
7. These two sentences are written up the left hand margin of page 5.
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