Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC508
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.151
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
23-1-1896
© 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 writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer regarding some photographs of Wedgwood & Tassie medallions depicting Sir Joseph Banks & his wife [Dorothea]. Discusses the fee he should be paid by the Ceylon [Sri Lanka] government for completing the flora [A HAND-BOOK TO THE FLORA OF CEYLON]. JDH is enjoying working on the plants in detail. He intends to use [Charles Baron] Clarke's work as reference for Cyperaceae though he will also need to refer to specimens. JDH criticises [Henry] Trimen's work [on the Ceylon handbook], particularly for referring the generic description of genus Caprifoliaceae to the ordinal for Viburnum. JDH mentions that when he was in India he was offered the Directorship of the [Peradeniya] botanic garden, Ceylon, after [George] Gardner died. JDH suggests that Thiselton-Dyer apply to the Board for administrative help during the absence of the Assistant Director [Daniel] Morris. JDH is sending Morris his recollection of the St Michaels from his Glasgow years as Morris is interested in oranges.

Transcript

*1a
Jan[uar]y*1 23/[18]96
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE
My dear Dyer*2
I thought that I had written on the back of the photographs of Banks*3 & his wife [Dorothea Banks née Hugessen] that they were taken from Wedgewood Medallions -- 3 x 1 ½ in[ches].
The small head of Banks is from a Tassie*4 (glass) medallion, white on black ground, 2 1/8 x 2 in[ches]. This is I should think (judging from likenesses) a faithful portrait. As for the Wedgewood of Banks I greatly doubt its resemblance, but must bow to the name impressed on the clay itself. As for the Lady

Page 1

*1a
Jan[uar]y*1 23/[18]96
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE
My dear Dyer*2
I thought that I had written on the back of the photographs of Banks*3 & his wife [Dorothea Banks née Hugessen] that they were taken from Wedgewood Medallions -- 3 x 1 ½ in[ches].
The small head of Banks is from a Tassie*4 (glass) medallion, white on black ground, 2 1/8 x 2 in[ches]. This is I should think (judging from likenesses) a faithful portrait. As for the Wedgewood of Banks I greatly doubt its resemblance, but must bow to the name impressed on the clay itself. As for the Lady

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it may well answer for an individual with whom my father was not fascinated!
I should regard £500 as a fancy[?] price for the 2 Vol[ume]s of the Ceylon Flora*4a (or rather 1 ½) & think that £150 per volume would be fair pay for the work. If however the Ceylon Gov[ernmen]t are disposed to regard my labour as exceptional, & take into account that I must travel nearly 50 miles by road & rail for every visit to Kew, (that is on three days a week) & that I must put aside my other work (the geog[raphica]l

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disturb[utio]n of the Indian Flora)! I should think that I had fairly earned the £500 fee.
I am going very closely into the work, & feel that I shall enjoy the tackling the plants themselves very much.
As for Cyperaceae, I shall stick to Clarke*5 ; -- there the trouble will be the keys to the species, for Clarke's descriptions do not contrast; & I must go to the specimen for this, & for the fuller descriptions.
Trimen's*6 work is curiously unequal -- fancy confining the ordinal characters of Caprifoliaceae to Viburnum; & for the genera character of that genus simply referring to the ordinal! True he announces this as his plan of work; & so with the

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species, & up to a certain point it is justifiable, but as in the case of Caprifoliaceae it is carried to excess. Did I tell you that the Ceylon Gov[ernmen]t offered me (when in India) the Directorship of the Garden on Gardner’s*7 death?
I do not see how you are to get on in Morris'*8 absence without an amanuensis at the very least -- surely "the Board" could manage that for you.
Morris is interested in Oranges & I am sending him my recollections of the St. Michaels which I have not seen since I left Glasgow!
With best wishes of the season & many returns of it to you & Harriet*9 & the children.
Ever affec[tionate]ly y[ou]rs | J. D. Hooker [signature]

ENDNOTES


1a. Letter bears a date received stamp that reads 'Royal Gardens Kew 28. Dec. 96' and a handwritten annotation that records the letter as 'ans[were]d 29.12.96'.
1. Jan[uar]y is crossed out in pencil and replaced with Dec[ember], correctly placing the writing date before the RBG Kew date received stamp.
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. Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet (1743--1820). English naturalist and botanist, held the position of President of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He advised King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and by sending botanists around the world to collect plants, he made Kew the world's leading botanical gardens.
4. James Tassie (1735--1799). Scottish gem engraver and modeler. He is remembered for a particular style of miniature medallion heads, portraying the profiles of the rich and famous of Britain which became commonly known as 'Tassies'.
4a. Trimen, H, A Hand-book to the Flora of Ceylon (1893). Revised and completed by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker.
5. Charles Baron Clarke (1832--1906). British botanist. Clarke was Inspector of Schools in Eastern Bengal and later of India, and superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1869 to 1871. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1887. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1894 to 1896, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1882. He worked at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew until his death in 1906. Publications include Cyperaceae of the Philippines: a list of the species in the Kew Herbarium.
6. Henry Trimen (1843--1896). British botanist. He was the curator of the medical museum at King's College, London, and lecturer on Botany at St Mary's Hospital Medical School from 1867 to 1872. He joined the botanical department of the British Museum in 1869. He was the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Ceylon (now the Botanical Garden of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) for sixteen years.
7. George Gardner (1810--1849) Scottish naturalist mainly interested in botany. In 1843, he was appointed to Ceylon, as superintendent of the botanic garden in Peradeniya and island botanist, by the colonial government.
8. Sir Daniel Morris (1844--1933), Botanist and Agriculturist Assistant at Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon (1877--79); Director of Public Gardens, Jamaica (1879--86); Assistant Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1886--98); Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, West Indies (1898-1908).
9. Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer (1854--1945). Botanical illustrator, principally for Curtis' Botanical Magazine between 1878 and 1880. Daughter of JDH and Frances Harriet Henslow.

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