Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC476
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.119
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to Thiselton-Dyer
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 

JDH has received letters from Sir William Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] & Daniel Morris. JDH is still ill with bronchitis, it is recommended he travel to the seaside. JDH is glad that WTTD's party [for garden employees] was a success. JDH has seen the death notice of [Ernest Staint-Charles] Cosson, whom in 1886 promised to donate his herbarium to RBG Kew. JDH does not know of any accounts of Fredericksborg Gardens but suggests that [Anders Sandoe] Oersted could have written something & that WTTD could also check the library for publications by Danish botanists, as listed in old botanical directories, & consult Lange[?]. JDH compliments F. Oliver's report on 'Nowackia' but corrects that Averrhoa is not a Leguminosae & bemoans the poor systematic botany. JDH describes Nathaniel Ridley's habit of sending badly prepared scraps of specimens, illustrations & descriptions of orchids [from Singapore]. Ridley is not knowledgeable about orchids but often sends new species of them, bad as the specimens are. JDH notes that he is informing Morris that Fawcett[?] & the Cooper's hill men are to visit JDH.

Transcript

will be grateful. P. 16 Averrhoa is Leguminosae! poor systematic Botany.
I have a good many letters & some scraps from [Nathaniel] Ridley, but there is not time yet for an answer to the lecture I sent him. He is I fear a very poor creature all round, & has not a notion of the way to treat Orchids whether for the Herbarium, or as a scientific observer & describer. Still, there he is, surrounded by novelties for garden & description & he has sent at one time & another a good dozen new species, as scraps, or hideous sketches, or descriptions. Some charming things amongst them. -- but nothing well done -- flowers without leaves, sketches with or without [1 word deleted illeg.] one or other, & so on & put up in hideous disarray; more than half to be returned after I have numbered & described! them. He has no sense of proportions.

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THE CAMP SUNNINGDALE
Ja[nuar]y 12/1890*1
My dear Dyer*2
Yours of 10th [1 word deleted illeg.] & [Daniel] Morris' of 12th arrived together by this mornings post.
My cough "bronchitic catarrh" still bothers me, & after 1-3 days in bed keeps me within doors. -- for how long remains to be seen, meanwhile -- my doctor tells me I must go to the seaside as soon as I can. This cannot be till after the 20th.
I am very glad to get the account of your party, & to know that it was so successful.
I saw [Ernest Staint-Charles] Cosson's Death: he solemnly avowed to me that his Herbarium was

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to go to Kew. This was in 1886 I think, I cannot say I attached any importance to the declaration.
I have no recollection whatsoever of having had or seen any accounts of the Frederiksborg Gardens. Can [Anders Sandoe] Oersted have written any thing?
It may be worth while to turn up the names of the Danish botanists in one of Morrison's[?] old Bot[anical]. directories & run down their works in the Library. Twenty years is not so long ago but that I should remember something of the Dane & his enquiry, but I do not.
Lange[?] would surely know of any accounts of the sort.
I have skimmed F. Oliver's tremendous report on the "Nowackia" -- what pains he has taken! I hope that H. R. H.

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will be grateful. P. 16 Averrhoa is Leguminosae! poor systematic Botany.
I have a good many letters & some scraps from [Nathaniel] Ridley, but there is not time yet for an answer to the lecture I sent him. He is I fear a very poor creature all round, & has not a notion of the way to treat Orchids whether for the Herbarium, or as a scientific observer & describer. Still, there he is, surrounded by novelties for garden & description & he has sent at one time & another a good dozen new species, as scraps, or hideous sketches, or descriptions. Some charming things amongst them. -- but nothing well done -- flowers without leaves, sketches with or without [1 word deleted illeg.] one or other, & so on & put up in hideous disarray; more than half to be returned after I have numbered & described! them. He has no sense of proportions.

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I am writing to tell Morris that I have invited Fawcett[?] for Saturday 18, & the Cooper's hill men to dine on that day.-- F[awcett?] will I hope spend Sunday here.
Ever aff[ectionatel]t yours | JDHooker[signature]

ENDNOTES


1. A note written in another hand records that the letter was 'Ans[were]d 15.1.90'.
2. Sir William 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 also married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.

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