From J. D. Hooker [26–31 August 1862]1
Address Care of Mrs Hooker2 | Westbank Terrace | Hillhead | Glasgow
Dear Darwin
Yours of 22d. arrived just as I was leaving Kew.3 We took train to Glasgow, staid there Sunday & came down Clyde on Monday; we are now with our friends the Smiths Jordan hill4 at his son in laws Mr Buchanan of Shandon a most lovely spot on the Gare Loch,5 & remain till Monday. I am amusing myself wandering over the hills & yachting. I hear from Huxley on Loch Fyne6 & perhaps shall join him after the marriage, (on the 4th)7 but we are uncertain as to our movements after that. Are you sure it is Lennys kidneys that are hurt?8 heaps of kidney symptoms are nothing but rheumatism + vitrated secretions
Mann’s address is9
Mr Gustav Mann
Govt. Botanist
Care of HRM Consul
Fernando Po
he will gladly do any thing he can & is a capital collector & packer but nothing else. He returns to England next spring. Oliver returned to Kew after I left & is there now.10 I bottled the two Vanda flowers after Fitch had sketched them—11 By the way I have a bottle of the Gymnadenia hybrids for you, tell me when you want them.12
I do not wonder you are disappointed with the microscope in the abstract & for Zoological purposes.—13 the great fault you mention of the wheel on wrong side I remedy myself at once with screw driver. (it is a horrible arrangement) The doublet is a necessity easily added.— The fact was that Ross14 alone would supply a good microscope at £4.40. suitable for ordinary botanical purposes.—firm, steady, portable, good glasses, cheap—& above all capable of any & every further appliance that a simple microscope is capable of having.— so a young student of moderate means, may buy his essential at once, & add to it, as he can afford.— Smith & Beck would do nothing of the kind.15 I know from long experience how essential it is that something efficient should be cheap.—especially for young men going abroad with all their outfit to procure & an expensive set of medical & surgical books & instruments to purchase besides.
I cannot remember any plants but melastomads with differently colored polliniferous anthers in same flower,16 but I shall
Footnotes
Bibliography
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
Desmond, Ray. 1995. Kew: the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens. London: Harvill Press with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
List of the Linnean Society of London. London: [Linnean Society of London]. 1805–1939.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Report of the Royal Commission on Herring: Report of the Royal Commission on the Operation of the Acts Relating to Trawling for Herring on the Coasts of Scotland. [House of Commons Parliamentary papers, Session 1863, 28: 139–74.]
Summary
On microscopes.
Cannot remember any plants but Melastoma with different coloured polliniferous anthers.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3697
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Glasgow
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 50–1
- Physical description
- inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3697,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3697.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10