Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC479
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.122
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
6-2-1890
© 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 suggests as possible candidates to present the 'Berkeley Memorial' of which RBG Kew is a beneficiary. He suggests The President of the Royal Society, President of the Linnean Society or President of the Royal Horticultural Society. The memorial will need to be put before the Prime Minister. JDH explains that he is currently working on orchids & has done a lot of work in conjunction with George Bentham on rearranging the Neottieae & Ophrydeae. JDH wishes to show William Turner Thiselton-Dyer a letter from George King. JDH is going to Folkston for a fortnight from about the 14 [Feb 1890].

Transcript

from [George] King*4, which I will bring when next I come to Kew. The work he gets through astonishes me.
We go to Folkeston[sic] next week, about 14th, for a fortnight. I shall go up & down, more or less.
E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | J D Hooker [Signature]

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Feb[ruar]y 6/[18]90
The Camp*1,
Sunningdale
My dear Dyer*2,
The next step with regard to the Berkeley Memorial is to consider who should present it. I think we considered that it would be best that neither you nor I should do this, Kew having been directly benefited. The three names that occur to me are, the P[resident of the] R[oyal] S[ociety], P[resident of the] L[innean] S[ociety] & P[resident of the ] R[oyal] H[orticultural] S[ociety] -- the latter alone would probably exert himself, accord[?] us a Conservation[?] with probable effects.
The usual course is I believe to

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send the Memorial to the Private Se[creta]ry of the Prime Minister, with a request that it be put before the latter. -- I will do anything you like in the matter.
I am utterly distracted with these Orchids & am dissecting all day long. I do want to get things put away, but what with the supplementary things, & the things misplaced throughout the Order I have to keep specimens & drawings close under my eye. I have had to go over all Neot[t]ieae again to gravely disturb Bentham*3 re construction of the genera & their contents, & am now reviewing Ophrydeae.
I have a very long & interesting letter

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from [George] King*4, which I will bring when next I come to Kew. The work he gets through astonishes me.
We go to Folkeston[sic] next week, about 14th, for a fortnight. I shall go up & down, more or less.
E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | J D Hooker [Signature]

ENDNOTES


1. The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire. The Hooker’s country retreat, and retirement home.
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.
3. George Bentham (1800--1884). British botanist who donated his herbarium of more than 100,000 specimens to Kew. He spent 27 years with Joseph Hooker in research and examination of specimens for the work Genera Plantarum, an influential work on plant taxonomy which is the foundation of many modern systems of classification.
4. Sir George King (1840--1909). Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta and Cinchona cultivation in Bengal, 1871--1898. First Director of the Botanical Survey of India, 1890--1898. King was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1901. He was recognized for his work in the cultivation of cinchona and for setting up a system for the inexpensive distribution of quinine throughout India through the postal system.

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