Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC472
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.115
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
19-7-1888
© 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 regarding exchange of money with the publisher Lovell Reeve for the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE & FLORA CAPENSIS. JDH is thinking of writing to Strachey to ask if his department looks favourable on Willy [William Henslow Hooker's] speculations, as they are distressing JDH. In a post script JDH adds that he has tried to write a just & appreciative notice [obituary] of Asa Gray. JDH thinks that Gray would have had a higher reputation if he has spent less time admiring others & more on producing works such as his Genera Florae Americae Boreali-Orientalis Illustrata or [George] Bentham's Linnean Journal Papers.

Transcript

Confidence inform me whether Willy's*4 speculations are regarded unfavorably[sic] at his Office:-- I am very distressed about them.
E[ve]r y[ou]rs aff[ectionatel]y | J. D. Hooker[signature]
I hope the notice of A[sa] Gray will do -- I feel it may not come up to the American idea, but I have endeavoured to be just as well as appreciative. If he could have kept out of Revering[?] & devoted himself more to such work as some of Bentham[']s

Page 1


Camp*1
July 19 [18]/88
Dear Dyer*2
Reeves'*3 cheque for Bot[anical] Mag[azine]. came this morning, so if you will send me his bill for Fl[ora]. Cap[ensis]. I can send him the amount & you the balance of the [1 word illeg.]. which was £70 I think -- Or if you prefer it I will send you the £70.
Sophia arrived yesterday, looking remarkably well.
I have some thoughts of writing to Strachey[?], asking if he could without breach of Official

Page 2

Confidence inform me whether Willy's*4 speculations are regarded unfavorably[sic] at his Office:-- I am very distressed about them.
E[ve]r y[ou]rs aff[ectionatel]y | J. D. Hooker[signature]
I hope the notice of A[sa] Gray will do -- I feel it may not come up to the American idea, but I have endeavoured to be just as well as appreciative. If he could have kept out of Revering[?] & devoted himself more to such work as some of Bentham[']s

Page 3

Lin[nean]. Jou[rnal]. Papers, & as his own Gen. Plant. Fl. Bot. Am.*5, he would have had a higher European reputation.

ENDNOTES


1. The Camp was the residence Joseph Hooker had built in Sunningdale, Berkshire. Completed in 1882 he lived there full time, with his second wife Hyacinth and their family, after retiring from RBG Kew in 1885.
2. 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.
3. Lovell Reeve Publishing Company. Augustus Lovell Reeve (1814--1865), founder of the Lovell Reeve Publishing Company. In 1845 the Botanical Magazine was launched by William Hooker and Reeve later acquired it. When Lovell Reeve died, the management of the firm passed on to his partner, Francis Lesiter Soper and the editorship of the Botanical Magazine was passed to Joseph Hooker.
4. William Henslow Hooker (1853--1942). Eldest child of Joseph and Frances Hooker; Willy was sent to New Zealand for his health and lived with James and Georgiana Hector 1869-70; employed by India Office 1877; visited Iceland 1899; married Sarah Ann Smith (1863--1952) in 1914.
5. Gray, Asa (1848) Genera Florae Americae Boreali-Orientalis Illustrata, J. Munroe & Co, Boston.

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