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To ?   14 June [1860]1

Down Bromley Kent

June 14th

My dear Sir

Many thanks for your kind note & offer.— I have sent the list to Dr Hooker & have told him to write direct to you if they desire any or all at Kew.—2 As Hooker is very much over-worked I have told him that I have told you, that if you did not hear in 2 or 3 or 4 days the seeds were not wanted at Kew.— I really have no where else to recommend.—

I am sorry to say my Translator could not agree with Publisher, & I see no chance whatever of French Translation.—3 There was good Review lately in the Revue des Deux Mondes & in Bib. Univ. of Geneva.—4

I am extremely much pleased to hear what you say about young men: I knew well I shd. never convert old stagers.—

I am sorry to say that my eldest daughter has long been very ill; & I am much harassed and unwell—5 I fear there is little chance of my being at Oxford—6

In Haste | My dear Sir | Yours truly obliged | C. Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to reviews of Origin in Revue des Deux Mondes and Bibliotheque Universelle (see n. 4, below); these reviews were published in April and March 1860, respectively.
2
Joseph Dalton Hooker was assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
3
CD had engaged Pierre Theodore Alfred Talandier to make a French translation of Origin (Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Edward Cresy, 20 January [1860]), but Talandier failed to secure a publisher (ibid., letter to J. L. A. de Quatrefages de Bréau, 30 March [1860]).
4
CD refers to Pictet de la Rive 1860 and Laugel 1860; there are annotated copies in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
5
Henrietta Emma Darwin was ill from late April 1860 until early 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 8, Appendix II, and Correspondence vol. 9, p. xix).
6
In 1860, the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was held at Oxford. For accounts of the meeting, see Correspondence vol. 8.

Bibliography

Laugel, Antoine Auguste. 1860. Nouvelle théorie d’histoire naturelle. L’origine des espèces. Revue des deux mondes 2d ser. 26: 644–71.

Pictet de la Rive, François Jules. 1860. Sur l’origine de l’espèce par Charles Darwin. Bibliothèque universelle. Revue suisse et étrangère n.s. 7: 233–55.

Summary

He has sent the list of seeds to J. H. Hooker at Kew. There has been no agreement about a French edition [of Origin]. There is little chance of his being at the BAAS meeting at Oxford.

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2832F,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2832F.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18 (Supplement)

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