From J. D. Hooker 2 November 1862
Kew
Nov 2/62
Dear Darwin
Oliver has I believe written to you about Lythrum seeds,1 if not to be had elsewhere I will get it from continent by letter, if you will tell me when you want them.
The Masdevallia is all safe.2 We have no Potatoes at all, I wish we had!—sometimes we grow a few on waste ground.— not a cob of Indian corn ripened this shady year.3
I will have the Desmodium & Mimosa plants raised for you. & Oxalis sensitiva also—.4 I am stupified at the idea of your 5 forms of Lythrum & [INFINITY] intercrossings to make, your work looks to me like a “Binomial theorem” if you remember that delightful mathematical affair that always got bigger by terms & never ended.5
Asa Gray seems busy with Cypripedium— ours are coming into flower, so if you want a fight I can I hope supply you with weapons!.6 Did I tell you how deeply pleased I was with Grays notice of my Arctic Essay, it was awfully good of him, for I am sure he must have seen several blunders.7 He tells me that Dr Dawson is down on me8 & I have a very nice Lecture on Arctic & Alp plants from Dr. D with sup critique on the Arctic Essay which he did not see till afterwards.9 He has found some mare’s nests,10 in my Essay & one very venial blunder in the tables—11 he seems to hate Darwinism—12 he accuses me of overlooking the Geolog. facts & dwells much on my overlooking subsidence of temp. America during glacial period,—& my asserting a subsidence of Arctic America, which never entered into my head—13 I wish however, if it would not make your head ache too much, you would just look over my first 3 pages & tell me if I have outraged any Geological facts or made any oversights.14 I expounded the whole thing twice to Lyell15 before I printed it with map & tables, intending to get (& thought I had) his imprimatur for all I did & said,: but when here three nights ago I found he was as ignorant of my having written an Arctic Essay as could be! & so I suppose he either did not take it in, or thought it of little consequence. Hector approved of it in toto.16 I need hardly say that I set out on Biological grounds & hold myself as independent of theories of subsidence as you do of the opinions of Physicists on heat of Globe!! I have written a long screed to Dawson
By the way do you see the Athenæum notice of L. Bonapartes Basque & Finnish language—17is it not possible that the Basques are Finns left behind after Glacial period, like the Arctic plants!.18 I have often thought this theory would explain the Mexican & Chinese national affinities
I am plodding away at Welwitschia by night & Genera Plantarum by day—19We had a very jolly dinner at Club on Thursday.20
We are all well. | Ever yours | J D Hooker
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bonaparte, Louis Lucien. 1862. Langue Basque et langues Finnoises. London.
Bonney, T. G. 1919. Annals of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society written from its minute books. London: Macmillan.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Sheets-Pyenson, Susan. 1992. Index to the scientific correspondence of John William Dawson. Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire: British Society for the History of Science.
Summary
Stupefied by CD’s five forms of Lythrum.
Asa Gray busy with Cypripedium. JDH offers some to CD if he wants to challenge Gray.
J. W. Dawson’s review of JDH’s paper on Arctic plants.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte’s views on Basque and Finnish language [Langue basque et langues finnoises (1862)] suggest to JDH that Basques are Finns left behind after the glacial period, like the Arctic plants!
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3792
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 66–7, 70
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3792,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3792.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10