JDH reports that [John] Smith has returned to RBG Kew in good health & [George] Nicholson has gone on leave. JDH also informs Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer that [Robert] Cross has been in independent communication with Danvers of the India Office, pushig his own agenda regarding the transportation of certain Cinchona plants from RBG Kew. JDH reports Welwitschia seeds are growing well & more cow tree seeds have arrived. Bulbophyllum beccarii has been sent to RBG Kew to be drawn but the stench was so bad that the artist, Matilda Smith, had to give up. JDH & John Smith have surveyed the arboretum & reduced the lawn mowing, they will also surevy the King of Hanover's grounds. He mentions papering the musueum [of economic botany], where [John Reader] Jackson is hard at work. De Candolle & his wife are coming to London to meet Mr & Mrs Asa Gray. JDH has remonstrated [Lovell] Reeve about the bad colouring of the Harriet Thiselton-Dyer's Bucklandia plate [in CURTIS' BOTANICAL MAGAZINE], JDH has heard Reeve underpays his colourists.
Transcript
copy of one from Cross to I.O. in which he as good as refuses to go out except with all the plants. The I.O. ask me (in the accompanying letter to me) whether I have any reason to change my views in regard to what plants should go. I answer that I have none, that I have carefully examined the plants with Watson & Smith & that we are agreed that it would be folly to send the three little plants. This brought[?] orders to me to instruct Cross to take out only the three
Royal Gardens Kew
Aug[ust] 23d/[18]80
Dear Dyer*1
All goes on well here Mr [John] Smith returned on Saturday in robust health, & with a fine complexion -- [George] Nicholson has gone away on leave -- very much done up.
Cross*2 flatly refused to take my orders about the Cinchonas*3, & I found that he had been corresponding with the I[ndia].O[ffice]. about them. I at once telegraphed to Danvers*4, my telegram crossed an official letter enclosing one from
copy of one from Cross to I.O. in which he as good as refuses to go out except with all the plants. The I.O. ask me (in the accompanying letter to me) whether I have any reason to change my views in regard to what plants should go. I answer that I have none, that I have carefully examined the plants with Watson & Smith & that we are agreed that it would be folly to send the three little plants. This brought[?] orders to me to instruct Cross to take out only the three
big plants.
Danvers says that Cross' little game is to take all out & that if all die he will be sent out again to America for more.
Welwitschia seeds are growing splendidly.
More Cow--tree*5 seeds have come. I am having 2 Ward's cases planted with them, to send where you think best.
Bulbophyllum Beccarii has been here for figuring[,] its stench is so horrible that poor Miss [Matilda] Smith*6, who has been most brave about it, was obliged to knock under*7. The leaves are like coal scuttles the bunch[?] of flowers very poor, & the odor[sic] the worst I know in the Veg[etable]. Kingdom & the most obtrusive.
I have surveyed the whole Arboretum
with Smith & reduced the Lawn Mowing by one half. Smith will see to the K[ing]. of Hanover's grounds*8 with me.
Jurd[?] is getting paper to paper at the Museum when the breaking through takes place.-- I keep [John Reader] Jackson at work.--
Old D[e]. C[andolle]. & his wife are coming to London about the 18th to meet the A[sa]. Grays.
I am furious with Reeve about the coloring[sic] of Bucklandia plate & have written to him that he cannot expect Mrs Dyer to do any more drawings for him; for that both I as Editor, & she as Artist, are disgraced by such representations of the our work. I fear it is all of no use use. I hear that he pays the colorist[sic] 30/ per 100!
Ever aff[ectionatel]y y[our]s | J. D. Hooker[signature]
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. Robert Mackenzie Cross (1836--1911). A Kew trained gardener, he assisted Richard Spruce with his collection of Cinchona seeds in Ecuador in 1859.
3. Cinchona is a genus of plants native to South America with naturally occuring quinine in the bark. From 1859 RBG Kew coordinated an ongoing and ultimately succesful effort to establish Cinchona as a crop in India, where it was in demand for the treatment of malaria.
4. F. C. Danvers, an India Office official involved with the tranplantation of Cinchona to India.
5. 'Cow tree' is a name that has been attributed to several species which exude a white or milky substance.
6. Matilda Smith (1854--1921). Second cousin of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, whom he had trained a a botanical artist. She became the first official artist of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; a post which she held from 1898 to 1921. For many years she was also the principal artist for the RBG Kew publication Curtis' Botanical Magazine, to which she contributed over 2,300 illustrations
7. 'Knock under', expression meaning to admit defeat or give in.
8. Ernest Augustus I of Hanover (1771--1851). His brother, King William IV of the United Kingdom, gave him the 'Pleasure Grounds' and 'Deer Park adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1831. This land was gradually surrendered by the King of Hanover over the period 1844--1845, becoming part of the Gardens.
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