To J. D. Hooker 8 [November 1855]
Down.
8th
My dear Hooker
Thank you for the seed, & am sorry you shd. have had the trouble of sending it. I suppose, (but have forgotten) that I directed it to be sent direct to you to be planted immediately, when I was full of rather foolish zeal. I presume you do not think it worth planting, or know by the rattling of its contents that it is dead.—1
I shall write & desire no more to be sent of this kind.—
I write now to know whether you can lend me, Miquel “Disquisitio Geograph. Bot. de plantanarum Regni Batavi Distributione 1837.”2 for a short time, for I want to calculate some of Decandolles results in another way,3 & Decandolle’s book, thanks to you for telling me of it, interests me extremely.
If you have the above will you send it per post, for I suppose it cannot be very heavy & I will repay the 6d or 1s postage. (By the way this shows me that I ought to repay you the heavy sum of 4d for the seeds, which like an honest man I do)
How I shd like to talk over some of the points in Decandolle with you. What an advantage a Botanist has over all other naturalists, for in what other line could any one have written such a Book as Decandolle has?
Will you tell me what sized Book “Boreau Flore du centre de la France” is?4
Adios | C. Darwin
I am getting on with my Pigeon Fancy & have now pairs of nine very distinct varieties, & I love them to that extent that I cannot bear to kill & skeletonise them.
P.S. | Very many thanks for your note just received with the names of the seeds.5
If I do not receive in a weeks time the pamplet or Book asked for I shall understand that you have it not, so do not write.—
I am very glad to hear what you are about: I hope heartily you may succeed in your Indian Flora Scheme,6 for I suppose it is best for the science; but for my own particular taste I wish your work was going to be more diunified.7
Oh for a Flora of the Pacific Islands!
Farewell my good dear man | C. D.
I am not at all sure that I understand myself!! my objection to Decaisne & I believe it is only to his not boldly calling his sous-especes either vars. or species.8
Footnotes
Bibliography
Boreau, Alexandre. 1840. Flore du centre de la France; ou description des plantes qui croissent spontanément dans la région centrale de la France, et de celles qui y sont cultivées en grand, avec l’analyse des genres et des espèces. 2 vols. in 1. Paris: Roret.
Candolle, Alphonse de. 1855. Géographie botanique raisonnée ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle. 2 vols. Paris: Victor Mason. Geneva: J. Kessmann.
Miquel, Frederich Anton Wilhelm. 1837. Disquisitio geographicobotanica de plantarum Regni Batavi distributione. Leiden. [Vols. 6,7]
Summary
Very impressed by Candolle’s book [Géographie botanique raisonnée (1855)]. Wants to recalculate his results.
CD’s pigeon fancy is getting on.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1774
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 114: 154
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1774,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1774.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5