My dear Hooker

I am extremely sorry to hear about Lady Hooker for I fear she must be in a very dangerous & what I always think worse a very suffering state.²

The address you require is “D^r Fritz Müller Desterro Brazil” (viâ Bordeaux.)³ He always writes via Bordeaux so I suppose there is some advantage. He is a capital observer & most obliging man.

We rec^d the novels all safe, & your jolly note of Aug 17. but I do not think you do justice to Mary Barton.⁴ I return Tyndall which I have been particularly glad to read. How true & striking it is what he says on the power of pondering.⁵ Parts of the article seem to me very obscurely written. I return Cunningham’s letters;⁶ they are too full of details about plants for my taste. I am very glad you are attending to the Victoria & Euryale.⁷

Will you be so kind as to get any of your assistants (but do not think of doing it yourself) to name for me the enclosed common greenhouse Mimulus. The nurseryman c^d only tell me that he always sold the seed as “mixed vars. of Mimulus”. It is of real importance to me to know the name, as I have experimented much on it.⁸ Also ask some one (if possible) to send me a few fresh & youngish flower of the yellow var. of Mirabilis jalapa.⁹

yours affectionately | Ch Darwin