To J. D. Hooker 20 June [1881]1
Glenrhydding House | Patterdale, Penrith
June 20th
My dear Hooker.
Your letter has cheered me, & the world does not look a quarter so black this morning, as it did when I wrote before.2 Your friendly words are worth their weight in gold.—
I daresay you have got Ox. acetosella by this time; if not, despatch the enclosed card & you will receive specimens.—3 I do not believe Ox. acetosella will ever grow long except in rather dense shade,—a fact which agrees with Batalin’s experiments on the movement of the leaflets, given in my last book.—4 Tear up card, if plants not wanted, & do not acknowledge receipt.—
I am very sorry to hear about Rolleston & Greg— The former is a horrid case.5 I liked much the little I ever saw of him. This morning we heard of the death (a blessed release from suffering) of McLennan, who has left uncompleted a book more valuable, probably, than Primitive Marriage.6
Your address must be a horrid bore.— The whole subject of Geographical Distribution has become a frightfully big one.—7 I wish I cd be of any use to you; but this out of the question, as the subject has gone much out of my mind.
You ought to keep steadily before your mind, what a splendid amount of grand work you have done.
Ever yours affectionately | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Batalin, Alexander Fedorovich. 1871. Neue Beobachtungen über die Bewegungen der Blätter bei Oxalis. Flora 54: 241–6.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1881. On geographical distribution. Presidential address, section E, geography. [Read 1 September 1881.] Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at York, Transactions of the sections, pp. 727–38.
McLennan, John Ferguson. 1896. Studies in ancient history. The second series: comprising an inquiry into the origin of exogamy. Edited by Eleanora Anne McLennan and Arthur Platt. London and New York: Macmillan.
Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.
Summary
Cheered by JDH’s friendly words.
Wishes he could help JDH with geographical distribution, but the subject has gone out of his mind.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13211
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Patterdale
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 516–17
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13211,” accessed on 27 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13211.xml