My dear Darwin

I have gone over your draft very carefully & written to Farrer expressing my opinion that Mr Torbits plan should have a trial, & is a fit subject for Govt. aid.¹ I have slightly modified what I said about the Liberia Coffee, since it has lately been found to be attacked by the Hemileia a parasitic Fungus like the Pernospora of Potato as badly as ordinary Coffees, but it has resisted the fly.² The reason is this, that the hard cuticle is an obstacle to the “fly” which has to gnaw through it before it commences its ravages, whereas the Hemileia, like the Peronospora enters by the stomata, & the stomata of one Coffee are like those of another.

Ever affec yrs | Jos D Hooker