From J. D. Hooker 17 May 1867
Kew
May 17/67
Dear Darwin
I find I must not go to Down tomorrow, having sent Smith to the country for his health, which causes me some anxiety. I must put it off till the Gooseberry Season!—1
I go again to Paris at end of month, a good holiday it makes, though the only rest I get is in the Theatres— Still the show is very interesting & I have an awful deal to learn in the matter of the plants.2
I hear that Wallace & Mueller of Victoria are the most likely candidates for gold medal for Biology, & am puzzled a little to decide, but have so very high an opinion of Wallace that I incline to him— his work is so very good though less than one could have wished.3
Do let me know soon how your health is. & how your book gets on.4
We are all pretty well & my wife getting about a little.5
Ever Yr affec | J D Hooker
[Enclosure]
Mauritius
15th April 1867
My dear Dr Hooker
Thanks for your Letter of 18th. Feby, and for its enclosures. I read with the deepest interest your Lecture on Insular Floras.6 It is a very valuable contribution towards the investigation of that most puzzling subject. I am glad to see that you incline a little to the theory of submerged continents; for the supposition that currents, oceanic or aerial, and birds, and fishes, have conveyed all the original progenitors of the Plants found on such Islands as those of New Zealand or Kerguelen, has always struck me as quite insufficient to account for the facts of the case.
Even as regards my favourite Ferns, which from the extreme lightness of their spores may be distributed for vast distances by the Winds, it is difficult to understand why certain genera are so carried to certain places and not to others close by, affording similar climate & conditions.
When once placed in such isolated spots their departure from the original type, and consequent formation of new species is readily conceivable.
I wish I could give you more information about the Seychelles, but you will be able to learn a good deal from Mr Edward Newton, brother to Professor Alfred Newton of Cambridge, who has just gone on leave of absence from home & spent a month at the group for the purpose of collecting Birds, on his way to England.7 He writes me that he was disappointed on the whole, as he found both their Fauna and Flora exceedingly limited.
To the latter cause he attributes the great deficiency of Insects which he states to be very remarkable. He saw but four species of Butterflies—of which one was a common Mauritius one. To the paucity of insects and flowering plants again, he attributes the small number of Birds, of which he got but few new ones for his Collection.8
Does not this tend rather to discountenance a Continental origin? Unless we may assume that the smallness of the different Islets and their distance from each other has led to wholesale extinction of species.
With regard to their Granite formation, and Indian Flora, betokening former connection in that direction, I am unable to judge as to the second point but as to the first I imagine that Granite though occasionally protruding in Southern India and Ceylon is not a prominent feature in the geological structure of either, and it must be remembered that it is on the contrary largely developed in the North of Madagascar much nearer at hand. I have been told by those who have seen both that its characters are very similar.
I never heard of any indigenous Mammals being found at Seychelles, at least no quadruped.9
The large Bat or Flying Fox is there but it is common here & in Madagascar also.
They have not even our little insectivorous quadruped the Tendrec (Ericulus spinosus) the only one pretending to be indigenous to Mauritius, though as it is eaten as a delicacy by the Blacks I suspect it may have been introduced from Madagascar.10 As to our laying claim to fossil bones of Deer, I doubt—saving Professor Owen’s opinion—whether they are of older date than the first Colonization of the Island when it is on record that the Portuguese turned loose Deer, Monkeys, &c &c. I am not quite sure to which discovery you allude, but it is probably the recent one when the Bones of Deer, Pigs, & Monkeys, were found in the swamp at Mahébourg in which the remains of the Dodo were embedded.11
I did not see any animals bones from this spot, nor find any when I visited it, and I have no idea what of size or description those of the Deer were— Mr Clark in his Paper on the discovery (vide Ibis— April 1866) states—“The Deer’s bones only were found in juxtaposition so as to make it probable that the animal had died on the spot on which they were found”12 Now as the Deer are every year hunted and driven from the Woods, often wounded to die in Cornfields & elsewhere, if these Bones were those of the large species which is very near the Ceylon Elk or Jamboc Deer though I believe Mr Newton has identified it with a Java variety, there can be little question as to where they are derived. If on the other hand they are as I think I heard from Mr Newton of a small species, they may be those either of the Gazelle which was introduced many years ago by the French from Senegal, or of the Indian Axis Deer which has also often been tried here.13
It would be curious to know in either case whether they seem identical with a former determination of semi fossilized Deer’s bones by Professor Owen from a Cave near Black River sent to him with some remains of the Tortoise by the late Dr Ayres under the impression that they might be those of the Dodo. This was I believe in 1860 or 61.14
Mr Edward Newton can give either yourself or Dr Owen full details as I called his attention to the subject.
I hope soon to have an opportunity of becoming better acquainted with the Seychelles Flora, as a travelling companion of Mr Newtons, Mr Nevill remained there for two months after the former had left and is expected back by next Steamer. I lent him my [Boxes Straps] &c, & he promised to lay down all he could, though beyond the Ferns he knows but little of Botany, Shells being his speciality.15
I was anxious that Dr Meller should avail himself of an opportunity which now presents itself for spending 6 months at Mahé Dr Brookes the Government Medical Officer there having applied for leave to go home—16 He writes to me however that his health is so bad, that he could be of no good there, & that it would only be tantalising to him to go there as an invalid. He has suffered terribly from Dysentery during all the Summer, and I almost fear that the heat of Seychelles might be too much for him. I have not seen him for many weeks, as he is quite unable to attend to business. In fact I think the opiates to which he sometimes has recourse are nearly as bad as the disease.
Mr Ward writes to me that failing Meller he hopes to secure the services of a Dr Wright (or Bright, for he does not write distinctly) who is coming out to the islands in June on a Scientific Mission.17 Do you know anything of this? I trust he will carry out your wishes of a thorough exploration.
Pray thank Mr Baker for the Copy of his Paper on Hymenophylæ read before the Linnean Society. I hope the Trichomanes Barklianum will stand, but I have an uncomfortable suspicion that it may prove the same as Trichomanes cuneatum Poir. in the Bourbon Catalogue, though Dr Meller could get no specimen of that & I have never met with it. The very general description given by Dr [Borias] would suit any simple leaved species and he says nothing of the venation.18
I enclose another species from Bourbon which is not in the Catalogue & which they told Meller was new & undescribed. I am sorry Mr Baker had not got it when he was dealing with the question, but I concluded Dr Meller had sent it home.
We are now going over our Bourbon specimens, & will set aside any that may be interesting to you at Kew.
I regret to hear of a hitch in the publication of the Synopsis but trust you will succeed in having reasonable remuneration for his work secured to Mr Baker. Will you ask the Publisher to put down my name for two copies of the work.19
Your letter has provoked rather a long story, but you must bear the consequences of your kindness in writing to me, | very truly Yrs | Henry Barkly
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Aust. dict. biog.: Australian dictionary of biography. Edited by Douglas Pike et al. 14 vols. [Melbourne]: Melbourne University Press. London and New York: Cambridge University Press. 1966–96.
Clark, George. 1866. Account of the late discovery of dodo’s remains in the island of Mauritius. Ibis n.s. 2: 141–6.
Colonial Office list: The Colonial Office list … or, general register of the colonial dependencies of Great Britain. London: Edward Stanford; Harrison & Sons. 1862–99.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
McCracken, Donal P. 1997. Gardens of empire: botanical institutions of the Victorian British empire. London and Washington: Leicester University Press.
Modern English biography: Modern English biography, containing many thousand concise memoirs of persons who have died since the year 1850. By Frederick Boase. 3 vols. and supplement (3 vols.). Truro, Cornwall: the author. 1892–1921.
Nevill, Geoffrey. 1868. Notes on some of the species of land Mollusca inhabiting Mauritius and the Seychelles. [Read 23 April 1868.] Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1868): 257–61.
Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker’s mammals of the world. 6th edition. 2 vols. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Record of the Royal Society of London: The record of the Royal Society of London for the promotion of natural knowledge. 4th edition. London: Royal Society. 1940.
Williamson, M. 1984. Sir Joseph Hooker’s lecture on insular floras. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 22: 55–77.
Summary
Cannot come to Down; John Smith is unwell.
Will go to Paris again at end of month.
Wallace and F. J. H. von Mueller of Victoria are most likely candidates for Royal Society Gold Medal for biology.
Encloses letter from Henry Barkly.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5539
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 163–4; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspoddence 188: 125)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp † encl 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5539,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5539.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15