Transcript
Employment in 1858, when the first waggon loads of plants from the old India House were being unpacked:-- he began on 5/ a week as my Assistant in arranging their contents, & has since attained a European[?] reputation, mainly through this work.
With regard to the "Flora Indica", for the sake of which I undertook the classification of these enormous accumulations, others will I hope reap where I have sown. The grip of Official duties tightens yearly, & after devoting the best part of 20 years to the arrangement
*1
Royal Gardens Kew
May 15/[18]70
Dear Mr Grant Duff *2
I have just completed the arrangement & distribution of the collections, late the property of the Indian Government, & have sent in my Report to Mr Merivale*3.
I venture to call your attention to what I have therein said of my zealous Assistant Prof. Oliver, in the hope that, should the Sec[retar]y of State ever have need of Botanical Services which Prof Oliver may be competent & willing to undertake, his claims to consideration may not be forgotten:-- he came to Kew, an applicant for Botanical
Employment in 1858, when the first waggon loads of plants from the old India House were being unpacked:-- he began on 5/ a week as my Assistant in arranging their contents, & has since attained a European[?] reputation, mainly through this work.
With regard to the "Flora Indica", for the sake of which I undertook the classification of these enormous accumulations, others will I hope reap where I have sown. The grip of Official duties tightens yearly, & after devoting the best part of 20 years to the arrangement
and study of the materials, I shall feel well rewarded if competent persons, such as [Thomas]Thomson & [Thomas] Anderson, will publish them. Had due & deserved encouragement been given 15 years ago to Indian Botanists, I should have been spared a labor which should properly have fallen to the Indian Service to perform & the "Flora Indica" would have been proportionately advanced.
With regard to my own services in utilizing these collections, the largest of the kind ever brought together, & representing an untold expenditure of money, & the sacrifice of several lives devoted to Science ([William] Griffith, [Johann Wilhelm] Helfer, [Albrecht Wilhelm?] Roth, [Hugh] Falconer & [John Ellerton] Stocks all died of diseases contracted during their
Botanical missions), I shall feel well rewarded if the Indian Government will encourage competent & deserving officers to publish them.
Ever very sinc[erel]y y[our]s | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]
M E Grant Duff [1 word illeg.]
P.S.
The first volume of Flora India is far advanced I am glad to say.*3
1. There is an annotation on page 1 which appears to be a later addition and not written in the hand of Joseph Hooker. Written horizontally in the upper left corner of the page, in ink, is "Dr Hooker May. 15. 70 Prof: Oliver & his own services The Botanical Collecn".
2. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (1829--1906). Scottish politician, author and administrator. He served as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for India from 1868 to 1874, Under Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1880 to 1881 and the Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886. During the last appointment he took great interest in the gardens of Government Houses in Madras [Chennai] & Ootacamund [Udagamandalam]. Letters from Grant Duff to RBG Kew can be found in our online collection of Directors’ Correspondence hosted at http://plants.jstor.org/
3. Herman Merivale (1806--1874). English civil servant and historian. Permanent Under Secretary of State for India from 1860--1874 and consequently Grant Duff's chief advisor during his tenure as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for India from 1868 to 1874.
4. There is an annotation on page 4 which appears to be a later addition and not written in the hand of Joseph Hooker. Written horizontally along the lower part of the page, in ink, is "Might we not give Oliver £200 & offer Hooker £500."
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