From J. D. Hooker 5 February 1864
Kew
Feby 5/64.
Dear Darwin
Unfortunately I could not be at the Linnæan last night to hear Scott’s paper,1 but I told Bentham of it, who, after it was read, spoke from the chair warmly in its praise, I shall ask to have it “referred” to me, & keep up the poor fellows steam.2
We are so glad to hear that you have some relief from your vomiting (do you actually throw up, or is it the retching) & pray for a recurrence of Rheumatism which is the most convincing proof that nothing is organically wrong.3
I am keeping up a sharp look out for climbing plants for you— did you get Flagellaria?4 if not I think we can send it now to you. Herewith goes the tropical Duckweed, Pistia Stratiotes. Drosera is sleeping now,5 we want skillful cultivation for these things, & in that we are, entre nous, most miserably behind-hand.
What on earth makes you make such a fuss about my going to Algiers;— I think I may say I am not going—for several reasons, 1) April is rather too late to start—& Christy (who was to be my fellow traveller) cannot go sooner—6 2) We are about to have Smith, our Curator, invalided, how to replace him at all, with a man possessing all the required attainments & virtues is a problem; & when solved I shall have all the work of keeping him straight for some time to come—7 this is confidential at present— Poor Smith is nearly blind, & our cultivation & collections of rare & interesting plants have been rapidly declining for years.
3d. I have spent all my money on Wedgwood portraits!8
I think we ought to fight for the Danes,9
I have received a request for subscription for Colenso during trial & to allow my name to be published;10 I shall do the first, not the last, as my poor mother would so take it to heart—& I really think it would be wiser not to make a party cry of it yet, which it is sure to be if names are bruited about apropos of it.11
Pinus Excelsa, one of the noblest conifers of the Himalaya, ranging from Assam to Affghanistan, has turned up in Macedonia! where one small forest of it exists on one mountain range, in the N.W. extreme, close to Austria (Mt “Pindrus”)12 It was discovered by Grisebach 30 years ago but badly described,13 & refound last year.
I have got into a confounded correspondence with Hewett Watson, who first affected to want my leave to criticise my Arctic Essay14 in a manner of which he says “I fear your usual good nature will probably not enable you to bear it—”15 rather cool this!
I answer him that I should be most glad he did criticise it, & in any way he likes; but that, considering his attainments, leisure, ability & precedents, I tell him “as a friend” that I think it strange that he does not himself, write a separate essay, & treat my views with what severity he thinks proper in the course of it— he will thus avoid all suspicion of criticising for the sake of fault finding—do a real service to science, & smash me, if I am smashable, far more effectually. I have also hoped, that he will send his smasher to a “well edited periodical”
He affects to misunderstand this, accuses me of a wish to stifle discussion &c &c &c & adds, that if he does it now, it must be with “increased freedom of language” from the feeling that he is writing against one who holds such sentiments—16 I have answered that I wish him to go ahead; that I thank him for warning me of the tone he proposes to adopt, & regret that our private correspondence should influence his treatment of the subject—17
The fact is, he first wanted to frighten me, & now that he finds that won’t do, he wants to pick a quarrell & bully— The tone of his letters is quite insufferable, but I have not shown that I feel or see this.—
I am grinding away at the N. Z. Flora18 & Gen. Plantarum.19
My wife20 is but poorly, last week her legs all swelled up so that she could hardly walk across the room— No other bad symptoms; but I suspect it has something to do with her defective heart or circulation.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1892. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. With a memoir of the author by Edward Clodd. Reprint of the first edition. London: John Murray.
Bentham, George and Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1862–83. Genera plantarum. Ad exemplaria imprimis in herbariis Kewensibus servata definita. 3 vols. in 7. London: A. Black [and others].
Browne, Janet. 1983. The secular ark. Studies in the history of biogeography. New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press.
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Ray. 1965. John Smith, Kew’s first curator. Kew Guild Journal 8: 576–87.
Desmond, Ray. 1995. Kew: the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens. London: Harvill Press with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
Egerton, Frank N. 1979. Hewett C. Watson, Great Britain’s first phytogeographer. Huntia 3: 87–102.
Forbes, Edward. 1846. On the connexion between the distribution of the existing fauna and flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected their area, especially during the epoch of the Northern Drift. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and of the Museum of Economic Geology in London 1: 336–432.
Grisebach, August Heinrich Rudolph. 1843–4. Spicilegium florae Rumelicae et Bithynicae exhibens synopsin plantarum quas aest. 1839 legit. 2 vols. Brunswick: F. Vieweg.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1864–7. Handbook of the New Zealand flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec’s, Lord Auckland’s, Campbell’s, and MacQuarrie’s Islands. 2 vols. London: Lovell Reeve & Co.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Watson, Hewett Cottrell. 1843. The geographical distribution of British plants. 3d edition. Pt 1 (no more published). London: Printed for the author.
Watson, Hewett Cottrell. 1847–59. Cybele Britannica; or British plants and their geographical relations. 4 vols. London: Longman.
Watson, Hewett Cottrell. 1868–70. Compendium of the Cybele Britannica; or, British plants in their geographical relations. 3 vols. Thames Ditton: printed for private distribution.
Summary
John Scott’s paper [see 4332] read at Linnean Society; praised by George Bentham.
Himalayan pine in Macedonia.
JDH is in a quarrel with H. C. Watson.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4401
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 100: 161; DAR 101: 180–1, 201
- Physical description
- inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4401,” accessed on 8 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4401.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12