My dear Hooker

We were all delighted at your account of Royalty & Aristocracy.¹ What an advantage it is to correspond with a man who habitually moves in the highest circles of fashion!!— When you can spare let me read N. Zealand newspapers about Haast.² Do not forget hot-house Lythrum-like flowers with 2 pollens.—³

I am sure I am not surprised that at this time of year, & with all your routine work, & most proper necessity of visiting (this is a sore point with me for our children’s sake) that you have not much time for extra science: I have for years marvelled how on earth you have done such gigantic work, & retained a stomach & brains still good for anything.—

Thanks to you & Oliver about Tendrils; I thought all might have been known.⁴ I have blundered in my last letter (I invariably do blunder at first), not about main fact of rotation, but about the means. It is a curiously complicated case & you must let me tell you a little about it. I find that when the shoot is securely lashed close above & below tendril, the tendril itself moves incessantly to & fro, but cannot make a circle. Secondly when tendrils are cut close off, so that neither their weight nor movement can affect the shoot itself, the shoot incessantly twists on its own axis (from 100^o to 180^o ) from one side to the other. This twisting movement causes the whole shoot to move (about 30^o) from side to side. Now from the correspondence in rate of movement of the tendril itself & of the gyratory movement of the shoot, I believe that after the tendril has moved one way & is ready to come back, the shoot twists & throws the tendril over to the opposite side, & then it travels back, & so performs a circle. In the pretty Cissus discolor which you gave me, the movement is entirely confined to the tendril itself, & it sweeps its circle in about 5 hours, day & night.— I hope I have not bored you with these details. Perhaps some day I will write a little paper on these movements—⁵

I have just read & laughed again over your splendid letter. I must get Goldwin Smith’s book & read it.⁶

Ever yours affect | C. Darwin