From J. D. Hooker [23 October 1881]1
Joldwynds, | Dorking. | Rail & Tel. | Gomshall, | S.E.R.
Sunday
Dear old friend
I take shame to myself for not having earlier thanked you for the diet of Worms—which I have read through with great interest.—2 I must own I had always looked on worms as amongst the most helpless & unintelligent members of the creation; & am amazed to find that they have a domestic life & public duties! I shall now respect them, even in our garden pots; & regard them as something better than food for fishes.— I am interested in observing how they shun some soils at Kew apparently from the want of vegetable matter in them.
We are here staying for the Sunday with Mr. Bowman & his pleasant family.3
I have been very busy for the last 6 weeks owing to Dyer & my daughter being on the continent:— They returned last week:—4 I have been busy too negotiating for the purchase of a plot of land near Sunningdale whereon to build a “Tusculum”.—& am on the point of closing with an offer of 6 acres of “Bagshot sand”, including a hill of 300 ft commanding superb views, & in a country of Scotch fir & heather.— Another year I shall hope to be able to build a cottage; an awful undertaking for me.5 The situation, 1 miles from the station, from which I can reach Kew in 1 to 1 hours, will be very convenient.—
As to work, the Genera Plantarum engrosses all my spare time— I have been 3 years nearly at the Palms & am finishing these at last.— There will be near 120 genera! many very imperfectly known— when the Gen. Plant. is off my hands I shall be a happy man—I hope—6
The Grays left yesterday.7
Ever affy yrs | J D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bentham, George and Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1862–83. Genera plantarum. Ad exemplaria imprimis in herbariis Kewensibus servata definita. 3 vols. in 7. London: A. Black [and others].
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
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.
Stearn, William T. 1956. Bentham and Hooker’s Genera plantarum: its history and dates of publication. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 3 (1953–60): 127–32.
Summary
Pleasure in reading Earthworms.
Buying land to build a cottage.
Finishing palms for Genera plantarum after three years’ work.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13424
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Joldwynds
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 164–5
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13424,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13424.xml