JDH asks Gray for a reference to General Alvord's first account of the Compass plant [Silphium laciniatum], alluded to by Gray in Silliman's Journal [AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS]. JDH has a drawing of the Compass plant to be published in the Jan number of CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. JDH has had lunch with George Thurber. JDH has received a collection of plants, mostly Cape types, from the plateau of the African Lakes. They were collected by a Mr Thomson, companion of the unfortunate Keith Johnstone. JDH praises Alfred Russel Wallace's book on island distribution [ISLAND LIFE]. JDH writes that he is sending books to Gray, he lists prices for the following publications based on a catalogue: a work by Nees von Essenbeck & Weihe, HISTOIRE PARTICULERE ORCHIDEES RECUEILLIES AUSTRALES by Petit-Thouars, a work by Delile, PLANTES USUÉLLES DES BRÉSILIENS by Saint-Hilaire, a book about ferns of the Antilles, FLORA SARDOA by Moris & FLORA ESPAGÑOLA Ó HISTORIA DE LAS PLANTAS QUE SE CRIAN EN ESPAGÑA by Martinez. JDH suggests that Gray pay £8 for the full 28 volumes he wants. Gray is missed at Kew. The health of JDH's sister Elizabeth Evans-Lombe is improving. JDH & his wife Hyacinth Hooker are both keen to get away for a holiday. [John] Smith is incapacitated by sciatica & it is causing problems with garden duties which may prevent JDH going to Italy.
Transcript
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
Oct[ober] 19/[18]80
Dear [Asa] Gray *1,
Can you let me have a reference to Gen[era]l Alvord's first account of the Compass Plant [Silphium laciniatum] *2, which you alluded to in Silliman's Journal *3. I have a fine drawing of it for Bot. Mag. *4 which I shall probably publish in the January number, for which I must have all the matter ready & numbered before I start, as well as Feb[uar]y & March! --
We have no news & are as quiet as mice -- Thurber *5 called again last week &
ROYAL GARDENS KEW
Oct[ober] 19/[18]80
Dear [Asa] Gray *1,
Can you let me have a reference to Gen[era]l Alvord's first account of the Compass Plant [Silphium laciniatum] *2, which you alluded to in Silliman's Journal *3. I have a fine drawing of it for Bot. Mag. *4 which I shall probably publish in the January number, for which I must have all the matter ready & numbered before I start, as well as Feb[uar]y & March! --
We have no news & are as quiet as mice -- Thurber *5 called again last week &
lunched with us:-- he is off this week.
A lovely little collection has come of plants from the plateau of the African Lakes alt 5-8000 ft. -- most of them Cape types. -- from a Mr Thomson who accompanied the unfortunate Keith Johnstone *6.
Wallace has just published what is apparently a capital book on island distribution *7 which he has dedicated to me in very flattering terms -- he had told me
of his intention but I did not expect so good a book: -- it clears[?] away a great deal of rubbish about distribution.
Goodall has written about the books, you want[?] about half of those you asked about: they are all small affairs. -- I am packing the whole lot to send off.
As to price I am puzzled -- of the 17 lots I can find data in The 2d hand Cat[alogue]s for the following only
Nees & Weihe *8 £1. .19. 0 (not worth it)
Petit-Thouars Orchid *9 [£]1. 0 0 (very rare)
Delile *10 [£]2. 5. 0.
St. Hil. Pl. Br. *11 £]1. 4. 0.
The only other works of any size or value amongst them are
Tres Felices Antillarea *12 4.to [quarto]
Moris Fl. Sardoa *13 4 vols. 4.to Priced at £5.8.0 in our catalogue, but not worth half [note across page]
Quer Fl. Espagnol. *14 -- 6 vols.
What do you say to £10. . for the lot (28 vols): if you think it too much, then so do I, & say £8.0.0.
We missed you awfully for a full week, & then put off mourning.
My sister Elizabeth holds better, but is much pulled down by the attack.
I quite long to get away, both on my own account & my wife[']s who wants a change badly, but we must await for two months yet -- With united love to you both | truly | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]
P.S. Smith *15 is completely crippled with sciatica, & I am at my wits' end as to the garden duties: if this goes on there will be no Italy for me! *16
1. Professor Asa Gray, American botanist from the Harvard Herbarium. A longstanding friend who shared Hooker’s interest in plant distribution.
2. Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord, a mathematician and botanist as well as a soldier, "discovered" the plant in 1839 and published his account in 1842.
3. Term used for the American Journal of Science and Arts.
4. Hooker is referring to Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the first periodical with colour illustrations, which he edited from 1865 to 1904.
5. Dr George Thurber (1821--1890). American botanist, met Hooker in New York during Hooker's trip to America with Asa Gay in 1877.
6. Alexander Keith Johnstone (or Johnston), a Scottish cartographer and explorer, died in 1879 while leading a Royal Geographical Society expedition seeking a trade route to the central African lakes. He was buried by his fellow explorer, Joseph Thomson, but recent efforts to find the headstone have been unsuccessful.
7. Wallace, Alfred Russel (1880), Island Life. Macmillan & Co, London.
8. Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck and Carl Ernst August Weihe.
9. Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars. (The book referred to could be Histoire particulière des plantes Orchidées recueillies sur les trois îles australes d'Afrique, de France, de Bourbon et de Madagascar)
10. Alire Raffeneau Delile.
11. Augustin Saint-Hilaire. The book might be Plantes Usuélles des Brésiliens.
12. Refers to a book about ferns (filices) of the Antilles, probably by Fée, Antoine Laurent Apollinaire (1866), Histoire des Fougères et des Lycopodiacées des Antilles. J.B. Ballière, Paris.
13. Moris, Giuseppe Giacinto (1837), Flora Sardoa. Taurini.
14. Quer y Martinez, José (1762), Flora Espagñola ó Historia de las plantas que se crian en Espagña. Joaquin Ibarra, Madrid.
15. John Smith (1821--1888). Curator of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1864--1886, not to be confused with his predecessor as curator from 1841--1864, also called John Smith.
16. Post script is written vertically up the left hand margin of page 4.
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