Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC422
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.67
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
15-4-1880
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to Thiselton-Dyer
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
3 page letter over 1 folio
 

JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer about the progress he & George Bentham have made sorting & packing the herbarium [of General William Munro] to be sent to RBG Kew. JDH & Bentham will go to Torquay the following day & JDH will return via Exeter to visit 'old family haunts'.

Transcript

We go on to Torquay tomorrow. Bentham will return straight on Monday, as he does not now wish to break the journey. I shall stop at Exeter & visit some of the old family haunts: though I do not expect to make out any thing.
With best love to Harriet [and] the bairns
E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[our]s | J. D. Hooker[signature]

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[Monty's Court near Norton Fitzwarren,Taunton, Somerset]
April 15/[18]80
My dear Dyer*1
We had a very hard day's work at the Herbarium yesterday which we found in disappointingly bad order -- in fact in a complete muddle. All will be ready to go to Kew tomorrow -- about 20 cases in a Van that will go through.
The loan[?] Herbaria are terribly mixed, but Bentham has offered to

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sort them out at Kew. There then will be the General Herbarium to deal with, & I am at a loss to say what will be best done with it -- as insects are busy in it, & we shall want none of it but the Grasses, as far as I can see.*2
The weather is most miserable, gloomy cold & drizzly with mist -- vegetation is very little in advance of Kews if at all. The House very cold.

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We go on to Torquay tomorrow. Bentham will return straight on Monday, as he does not now wish to break the journey. I shall stop at Exeter & visit some of the old family haunts: though I do not expect to make out any thing.
With best love to Harriet [and] the bairns
E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[our]s | J. D. Hooker[signature]

ENDNOTES


1. Sir William Turner Thiselton--Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He previously held professorships at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester, Royal College of Science for Ireland and Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
2. Joseph Hooker is referring to the herbarium of William Munro who died in 1880 and bequeathed his botanical collections to RBG Kew. Hooker and George Bentham went to Taunton to sort the herbarium on 13 Apr 1880.The collections were amasssed during Munro's military career and collecting expeditions in India, Kashmir and the West Indies. His main research field was grasses.

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