[[1]]
Kew
March 29th
1857
Dear Asa Gray
Thanks for your note of March 10th. I am impatient for the Lessons*1 for which shall
have my very best attention. I did intend to review the manual myself & my
conscience has smitten me sore about it many & many a time I do assure you. My
only excuse is that I cannot get up an interest in the Journal of Botany, do what I
will. I have no sympathy with it in any of its aspects. I wish till I am tired that my
dear good father would drop it & stick to his Species Filicum I do hint at it often, but I
invariably get repulsed; it does him no credit, & some discredit but he seems to think
that he
[[2]] has some high purpose to sub serve in conducting it & his perceptions of right &
wrong in reviewing & noticing books are utterly blunted or misled by prejudice pro one
con on another. I often cannot get a proof of my writing to correct & really grammar,
composition spelling & common accuracy are looked upon as pedantic trifles. I had
infinite trouble with my review of ADC [August De Candolle] which I had put in type
for months before it appeared. The old contributors have all given it up in despair[,]
no new ones turn up, & we are often hard up for matter. I rarely read it now.
My father has just asked me to review [Reverend Miles Joseph]Berkeley’s
Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany for him a little in detail -- it is no joke to read it to
begin with -- it is a
[[3]] wonderful book, chuck full of observations, full of reflections, full of able thought,
accurate analysis, as carefully & honestly done as a book can be, & the result of a
mastery of the subject which I believe no other man living possesses. Unfortunately
it is abominably written & arranged & the really admirable correlations of facts &
phenomena of the different organs & orders of plants dealt with in the most higgledy
piggledy fashion it is a county parson’s sermon all over, without a beginning[,] middle
or end. The leading ideas are here there & every--where, bound together by the
jolliest rigmarole of conjunctives, prepositions & adverbs. These parsons are so in
the habit of dealing with the
[[4]] abstractions of doctrines as if there was no difficulty about them whatever, so
confident from the practice of having the talk all to themselves for an hour at least
every week with no one to gainsay a syllable they utter be it ever so loose or bad;
that they gallop over the course when their field is Botany or Geology as if we were
in pews & they in the pulpit. Witness the self--confident style of Sedgwick &
Buckland Copewell[?] & Baden--Powell -- Berkeley has avoided this latter snare but has got
thoroughly imbued with the idea that it matters little how his matter is served up. The
book however pleases me amazingly. There is a lofty tone throughout it, an arriving
at the highest principles & an earnest desire to make his readers
[[5]] think for themselves as much as he does for them.
Anent Genera we have had our say at the Linnean & you will find an abstract of our
ideas in the Literary Gazette for last week March 21st under the head of Scientific
Societies. Benthams’ resumè[sic] of our views will appear in the Journal Linnean.
The Germans have got to dreaming on the subject as usual & A. Braun is groping
amongst blacks for the characters of whites. There is a story somewhere of an
Englishman, Frenchman & German being each called on to describe a Camel. The
Englishman immediately embarked for Egypt, the Frenchman went to the Jardin de
Plantes, & the German shut himself up in his study & thought it out! How can Braun
who has no practical knowledge of large masses of species, [one word crossed out,
illeg.] know where the generic idea & name is to the
[[6]] fixed -- how far in short systematic language is to be carried into the subdivisions of
plants. [Berthold Carl] Seemann has got some twaddle about whether genera are
objective or subjective -- a point easily disposed of, Rosa being clearly an objective
genus as is Salix & a mass of others, whereas almost every genus of Umbellifers is
a subjective idea, & a confoundedly bad one too.
I read a paper of [Thomas]Thomson's the other day at Linnean on the germination of
Careya & Barringtonia. He proves the embryo to be all an enormous axis, with a few
minute cotyledenary leaves at one end & a minute radicle at the other.
Cl. Miers cannot see any difference between Thomson's proving this by observation
of growth & analysis & his own guess that it the embryo is a macropodous Radicle!
[[7]] I am quite uneasy at your having to do a book on forest trees -- it is quite out of
your line, & as bad as Decaisne writing on Pears -- is there no way of shaking it off at
least all but the systematic parts.
Spruce is still at Tarapoto the back of the Andes, & cannot get back -- for want of
money, he has credit at Guayaquil& at Para but cannot get the gold from either! He
will go on to Lima when he can -- three chests have arrived. Our gov[ernmen]t are
sending an expedition to explore the upper source[?] of Missouri & country at E[ast]
foot of R[ocky]. M[ountains]. just N[orth] of your boundary. They will sail this next
month for New York & [Eugène] Bourgeau has £150 per annum as Botanist. The
commander, a Mr Pallisser [Palliser], is an Amateur hunter & traveller in those parts.
They will be away 2--3
[[8]] years -- about 5 officers go: Botanist, Geologist, Doctor & Astronomer all under
Colonial office orders.
My wife is at Brighton with the children -- my eldest boy having been poorly, but is
much better. She will probably stay sometime at the seaside as I have broken up my
household here, & occupy one room dining with my father. Are you coming over this
year? Do & get a fillip*3 to go on with Fl[ora] N[orth]. Am[erica] ! -Fitch has just completed a most magnificent set of 7 elephant folio plates with
illustrations & analysis of about 50 British Nat[ural]: Ord[er]s & genera designed by [John
Stevens] Henslow, & superintended by your humble serv[an]t -- it is done for the govt
National schools under Board of Trade. Remind me to try and get a set for you gratis. I
think I am entitled to some for they have put me to a deal of trouble -- but I shall
forget it if you do not remind me.
With united sincer[e] regards | Ever yr affection[ate] | JD Hooker [signature]
[[9]] P.S. March 30th.
Dear A[sa] G[ray] I have just received the parcel fr[o]m Bookseller & your letter of
[blank space left in manuscript] many thanks for both. I am deep in the Elements*4
which are excellent. I like the method[,] style & execution barring of course the
coarseness of the printers &c work. I should like to have seen an Introductory
Chapter written in the secure lucid simple still accurate & sober style, introducing the
beginner to some of the more prominent matters in a practical study of plants, telling
him E.g. that he will find common places adhesious, cohecious, definite defining all these
terms by examples, numbers, propositions, analogies, homologies, variations &c
also point out that some times as Epis. Peris. Achlans. Monocots &c. Seed, embryo,
ovule &c must be absolutely & unalterably impressed in every pupils mind & be at
their finger ends. It is true that "organs" "morphology" & most of these terms (not all)
are defined in the glossary but ten to one the pupils will go through & through the
work & be unable to find define "anatomy", "homology" "organ" "function" "type" at
the end of it.!
The definition of Physiology is rather loose, is it not "the science of the forces that
determine the action play of functions" your term "the way it grows" act of growth *5 is
development which is not physiology, but a brand of morphology. Physiology
[[10]] is Physics & Chemistry -- it is true that bad botanical definers put all class ovule
growth & such things into under Phsiology, but if so then activation, vernation & every
other phase of development comes under physiology.
A little might be said on the great advantage of Systematic Botany as a means of
schooling the mind (as good as mathematics) to habits of close observation,
accurate defining, & diagnosis. Some of our greatest lawyers[?] & medical men have
pronounced systematic N[atural]. H[istory]. to as an admirable training for medical &
legal enquiries, in sifting evidence & disease &c &c. Also Syst[ematic]. Bot[any]: i.e.
the Nat[ural]. Ord[er] should be the prominent goal for the beginner as they are the
expressions of the morphology, structure & all other attributes of plants. Classifying
plants is further an exercise of the reasoning faculties always bringing memory &
judgement into play & we all know "memoria exalater augeada augetur excolendo"*6
An introductory chapter of this kind
[[11]] would incite many thoughtless pupils to think for themselves & give a dignity to
the study that teachers would appreciate. These hints, if worth any thing, may help
you to a new feature for a reprint.
I am glad you use the term "common plan". I do not like "stemlet". Take care of
giving false ideas p.6 line 6 pushed is bad, is it not?*7
Another thing must be impressed at the present day, -- that Botany is a knowledge of
plants, -- that Physiology, anatomy &c &c are one thing, but Physiological &c Botany
quite another. Also that in examining in Botany the teachers should never go beyond
what the pupil has a practical knowledge of -- Bot[an]y is a science of observation &
the present plant of examining pupils in what they have coached or crammed up is
ruinous: they are disgusted at finding that after taking an honor in Botany, when they
want to progress in the science they have to go back to the Elements.
[[12]] If teachers understood this, they would themselves see the necessity of
learning. Tell them that a child with a butter--cup will could make out whether Torrey
or Gray knew most of Botany, but that neither Torrey nor Gray could tell which two
children knew most of plants by examining them on what they had only read.
Reading without observation on the sciences of observation is most destructive. The
difference between the mode of teaching required for the Natural Sciences & Moral
Sciences &c has never yet been properly put, & until it is all hopes of getting the
Nat[ural] Sciences introduced into elementary education are illusory. I have urged
Henslow over & over again to do this but he is busy with a little of every blessed
branch of knowledge & art under the sun -- lecturing on every thing from Necrology
to Fluxions theorising more & more diffuse & unstable every day.
[[13]] You ask if I would come to America this year if the Canadians invited, it will be I
fear impossible this year -- next year I shall exert myself to get across the water for 6
weeks & see you & Niagara. Though I should be content to see you & yours. This
year I have no money at all, & want to make some if I have a chance & above all I do
not like to leave the Indian Herb[ariu]m now that I see the way to the end of it, If I
could get the sorting selecting & ticketing done before this time 12 month, & the
distribution well begun before July 12 month I should feel free to get away if I could
in August 58[.] The Tasmanian Flora would then be finished too -- a heavy drag on
me & my purse at present, for I shall not be repaid my outlay ever till it is all finished.
The V[an]. D[iemens] L[and]. gov[ernmen]t you know voted me £350 for the work, to
be drawn when it is
[[14]] completed, but meanwhile I have to send them 6 col'd. copies as it comes & pay
Reeve for them. The admiralty stopped my1/2 pay long ago, so that I am working gratis -for my beloved country. I pay the Cryptogamic Botanists out of my own pocket, & for
the coloring of the presentation copies; these matters, the Linnean subscription &
sundries of that kind, have cost me well on to £200 within the last 18 months, of
money which I shall not get back in any shape. My dear good old Dad offered me
£200 yesterday, guessing the state of my Exchequer, & I shall have to take it if
nothing turns up. -- meanwhile I muddle along. My trip with my wife last year cost me
about £120, & the childrens teeth are growing apace.
I like your various Botanical notices in Silliman extremely, I wish Bentham would do
the like in this country. I was delighted with
[[15]] Barber['s] exposure of French dishonesty. You see de Heer gives Alphonse
D[e]. C[andolle]. credit for all the Forbes Atlantis theory.
Duchastre has just published in some French Encyclopedia as an article on
Bot[anical]. Geog[raphy]. a rechauffee of the headings of A.D.C. Bot. Geog. always
giving A.D.C. all the credit of all the views, theories & observations & in remunerating
at the end the names of authors on Bot. Geog. omits all the English but Henfreys
veg of Europe & Brown's Flinders! Look at A.D.C.s allusion to nutmeg arillus & see
how he ignores Thomson's & my observations, though he had previously to
acknowledge in Ann. Sc. Nat. that we were right -- albeit with as bad a grace as
possible. I always feel that we must so often unintentionally ignore one anothers
observations, that we can ill afford to say make the least of those we do know of.
I certainly would advise you to take Gardeners' Chronicle -- by all means it is
admirably conducted & full of most valuable Botanical matter -- it
[[16]] is quite indispensable. There are a mass of original observations in it -- by
Berkeley[,] Lindley & others, besides excellent short notices, leading articles &c. You
should really buy up & skim over the past volumes[.] Lindley has had me to
communicate a good many articles, to all which I put J.D.H. -- chiefly from A.D.C.
Geog. Bot. lately, a job of which I am very weary, as the deeper I go into ADC the
more repetition, triviality & flatulence I find in it. Still it is a very fine book but could
well have been put in 1/3 the compass. The meteorological part especially is
egregiously overdone & overestimated by himself, both as to quality & originality.
But I shall run on for ever | so good bye | with sincere regard to | Mrs Gray Ever
y[ou]r affe[ctionate] | J D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Gray, Asa (1857). First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology.
2. Gray, Asa (1847). Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.
3. Meaning a stimulus or boost to an activity.
4. Gray, Asa (1887). The Elements of Botany for Beginners and for Schools (based
upon First Lessons in Botany).
5. The phrase "act of growth" has been inserted in pencil at the bottom of the page
(page 9), an arrow and a cross indicate that the phrase is to be inserted at his point
in the text.
6. Latin. Meaning "memory is improved by use".
7. An annotation inserted here, in pencil, reads: "good".
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.