JDH is sending Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] the prepared list of donations to the RBG Kew herbarium, for the annual Kew Report, which will need revising by WTTD & [Daniel] Oliver. They may also wish to edit Hooker's eulogy to [General William] Munro. JDH cannot work up the list of Kew's publications without references so the Report will be delayed beyond the end of Mar this year. JDH & [Asa] Gray have visited [Joseph] Decaisne who is convinced that a student of his can define the characters of the natural orders based on hairs[?], & Decaisne is classifying species of Clematis according to the bristles on the stem & testa, which Baillon[?] will undoubtedly debunk. They visited the Jardin des plantes where JDH observed about 18 immature species of Madagascar palms. Also met: [Marie Maxim] Cornu, [Philippe Édouard Léon] van Tieghem, [Pierre Étienne Simon] Duchartre & [Gaspard Adolphe] Chatin. They have dined at Lavalier's & been to St Denis. Next they go to Chambery, Turin, Genoa, Pise [Pisa], Rome & Naples.
Transcript
Paris
March 8 / [18]81
Dear Dyer*1
I forward the Herbarium donations done as well as I can without means of reference, it will require your critical eye & Oliver's*2 revision. If you think I have said too much of Munro*3, pray cut out: but I think it well that the Kew Report, now that it has assumed such important dimensions, should be a botanical recorder of such Eminent service as he rendered to Botany.
I wish I had brought a copy of the last Report, which I intended to do, & I would have worked up the Kew publications. If you will forward me a copy to *4
I will try my hand at it.
By right the Report should not be later than March 31, but that will be
Paris
March 8 / [18]81
Dear Dyer*1
I forward the Herbarium donations done as well as I can without means of reference, it will require your critical eye & Oliver's*2 revision. If you think I have said too much of Munro*3, pray cut out: but I think it well that the Kew Report, now that it has assumed such important dimensions, should be a botanical recorder of such Eminent service as he rendered to Botany.
I wish I had brought a copy of the last Report, which I intended to do, & I would have worked up the Kew publications. If you will forward me a copy to *4
I will try my hand at it.
By right the Report should not be later than March 31, but that will be
impossible this year.
On Sunday Gray*5 & I called on Decaisne*6 who we found looking aged, he suffers terribly from attacks of gravel in the kindneys [kidneys] -- He tells us he has a pupil who has discovered that the hairs[?] form the most important dogmatic[?] character of the Nat[ural]. Ord[er]s. -- that it is infallible! Of course we did not contradict him -- he himself is finding characters of species of Clematis in the number of woody bristles[?] of the stem & in the cellular tissue of the testa of the seed! I fear that Baillon[?]*7 will come down on all this.
We spent the greater part of Monday at the Jardin [des plantes] -- where I found about 18 Palms of Madagascar but not in a state yet for description. We also called on Cornu*8 & Van Tieghem*9 & saw both
the latter complains of the small volume of science that all his teaching leads to.
Yesterday we dined at Lavalier's in a beautiful House, quite palatial. We met Duchartre*10 & Chatin*11, both very agreeable. I Today we have been to S[ain]t Denis & we leave tomorrow for Chambery. -- then Turin -- then Genoa, Pisè [Pisa] & so to Rome (for one night) & on to Naples.
With love to Harriet*12.
I am 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. Previously held professorships at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester, Royal College of Science for Ireland and Royal Horticultural Society. Married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
2. Daniel Oliver (1830--1916). Botanist. He was first Librarian and then Keeper of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
3. General William Munro (1818--1880). British soldier & plant collector in India. Munro's herbarium specimens were presented to Kew in 1880.
4. Hooker has left the end of the line blank, he has not inserted an address to send the Report.
5. Asa Gray (1810--1888). Considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. He was instrumental in unifying the taxonomic knowledge of the plants of North America. Gray, Hooker and Darwin were lifelong friends and colleagues. Hooker and Gray conducted research for Darwin.
6. Joseph Decaisne (1807--1882). French botanist & agronomist.
7. Possibly Henri Ernest Baillon (1827--1895). French botanist & Professor of Natural History.
8. Marie Maxim Cornu (1843--1901). French botanist & mycologist.
9. Philippe Édouard Léon van Tieghem (1839--1914). French botanist.
10. Pierre Étienne Simon Duchartre (1811--1894). French botanist.
11. Gaspard Adolphe Chatin (1813--1901). French physician, botanist & mycologist.
12. Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer (1854--1945). Botanical illustrator, daughter of Joseph Dalton Hooker and wife of William Turner Thiselton-Dyer.
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