JDH writes that he is enclosing a letter from George King [not present] for Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] to read. He thanks WTTD for a copy of his portrait taken by Elliot & Fry, & advises that a three quarters pose would have been more flattering than full face. JDH is working on the BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, getting ahead in hope of being employed on the HANDBOOK TO THE FLORA OF CEYLON [Sri Lanka] continuing the work of George Henry Kendrick Thwaites & Henry Trimen. JDH's 'unlucky [Joseph] Banks Journal' is not selling well, though it has had a good reception & done something to raise Bank's reputation in posterity. Sir Samuel Saul has sent JDH a printed list of Joseph Banks' correspondence purchased from Lord Brabourne, also a volume of records of New South Wales from 1783-1789 [HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES FROM THE RECORDS by G.B. Barton] including information on Bank's efforts for the colonising of Australia. JDH also wants a copy of a memoir of Joseph Banks by George Sutter & will ask Jackson if they have it at the British Museum. JDH offers WTTD a portrait of Ferdinand von Mueller, taken for the AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY, for the RBG Kew museum. JDH thinks there should be a printed catalogue of the botanists' portraits at Kew as it must be the only such collection in the world. JDH is sending Harriet Thiselton-Dyer a copy of his Royal Society notice of Brian Houghton Hodgson, a copy will also go to the library.
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in England, & 100 gone to America. It has cost me £50 already & I shall never see 1d. of it back. Nevertheless I am more than satisfied with its reception here & in America & Australia, & find myself proud of having given Banks a lift up amongst[?] his posterity.
Sir Saul Samuel*9 has sent me a printed list of a large collection of Banksian correspondence that he brought from Lord Brabourne[?]*10! Also a volume of Records of N[ew] S[outh] Wales 1783 -- 1789*11 full of most curious matter, including Bank's efforts in the cause of the Colony &c &c &c.
There is a mention in it of a short Memoir of Sir J[oseph] B[anks] "written from
*1
Fe[bruar]y 15/[18]97
The Camp,
Sunningdale.*2
My Dear Dyer*3
You may like to see the enclosed from the indefatigable [Sir George] King*4. I had not heard from him for some months.
Thanks for your portrait by Elliot & Fry*5 -- I cannot think it does you justice as full front face is always trying in a photograph. E[lliot] & F[ry] should have taken 3/4.
I am trying to get ahead with Bot[anical] Mag[azine], so as to have a clear space for the [Handbook to the] Ceylon Flora if the Gov[ernmen]t be disposed
to employ me on it. I feel as if I had a sort of copy right in the Flora, after [George Henry Kendrick] Thwaites*6 & [Henry] Trimen*7 & am not disposed to make any difficulty about payment. Though as the work must be done at Kew, & the travelling to & fro is a considerable expenditure, both of costs & time. I cannot be expected to do it in a meagre allowance.
The unlucky [Joseph] Banks*8[?] Journal won't sell! Only 270 copies sold
in England, & 100 gone to America. It has cost me £50 already & I shall never see 1d. of it back. Nevertheless I am more than satisfied with its reception here & in America & Australia, & find myself proud of having given Banks a lift up amongst[?] his posterity.
Sir Saul Samuel*9 has sent me a printed list of a large collection of Banksian correspondence that he brought from Lord Brabourne[?]*10! Also a volume of Records of N[ew] S[outh] Wales 1783 -- 1789*11 full of most curious matter, including Bank's efforts in the cause of the Colony &c &c &c.
There is a mention in it of a short Memoir of Sir J[oseph] B[anks] "written from
personal knowledge" & published in Parramatta in 1855 by Mr. George Sutteor*12 -- I shall try to get a copy through Sir S[aul] Samuel, & and have meanwhile asked D. Jackson*13 to look for it in the Brit[ish] Mus[eum].
Have you in Museum, a fair likeness of [Ferdinand von] Mueller*14? -- I have just received a fairly good one (black oval ¾ length full face 5 in[ches] high) from a photo taken for the "Australian Journal of Pharmacy" -- the Museum shall have it if wanted. By the way pray do not forget a printed catalogue of the Botanist Portraits at Kew. There is no other collection in the world I suppose.
I enclose for Harriet*15 a copy of my R[oyal] S[ociety] notice of [Brian Houghton] Hodgson*16: [Charles] Clarke*17 says it is far better than [William Wilson] Hunter's*18 Life [of Brian Houghton Hodgson, 1896]! – I shall put it in the Library.
E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs J. D. Hooker [signature]
I hope that the Eczema is abating.
1. Letter bears a date received stamp that reads 'Royal Gardens Kew 16. FEB. 97' and a handwritten annotation that records the letter as 'ans[were]d 16.2.97'.
2. The Camp, Sunningdale, Berks. The Hookers' country retreat to which Hooker permanently retired after leaving Kew.
3. 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.
4. Sir George King (1840--1909). British botanist appointed superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta in 1871, and the first Director of the Botanical Survey of India from 1890.
5. Elliot & Fry. Photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott (1835– 903) and Clarence Edmund Fry (1840--1897). For a century the firm's core business was taking and publishing photographs of the Victorian public and social, artistic, scientific and political luminaries.
6. George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1811--1882). English botanist and entomologist, interested particularly in the lower plants such as the algae and the cryptogams. He became a recognized botanist when he showed that the diatoms are not animals, but algae. In 1846 he was lecturer on botany at the Bristol school of pharmacy and afterwards at the medical school. In March 1849, on the death of George Gardner, he was appointed superintendent of the botanical gardens at Peradeniya, Ceylon.
7. Henry Trimen (1843--1896). British botanist. 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.
8. Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet (1743--820). 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.
9. Sir Saul Samuel (1820--1900). Australian colonial merchant, member of parliament, pastoralist, and prominent Jew. Samuel achieved many breakthroughs for Jews in the colonial community of New South Wales including the first Jew to become a magistrate, the first Jew elected to parliament, the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown.
10. Possibly Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne (1829--1893). British Liberal politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Russell in 1866 and under William Ewart Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and was also Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. In 1880 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Brabourne.
11. History of New South Wales from the Records. Volume 1, Governor Phillip 1783--1789. By G.B Barton. Sydney: Charles Potter, 1889
12. George Suttor (1774--1859). Anglo-Scottish farmer and pioneer settler of Australia, born in Chelsea, London, England, the third son of a Scottish market gardener (and botanist on the estate of Charles Cadogan, 2nd Baron Cadogan). Through contacts of his father he gained an interview with Sir Joseph Banks who sent him to Australia with a collection of trees and plants including grapevines, apples, pears, and hops.
13. D. Jackson
14. Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller (1825--1896). German-Australian physician, geographer, and botanist. Appointed Government Botanist for the then colony of Victoria by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He discovered and named many Australian plants.
15. Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer née Hooker (1854--1945). Oldest child of Joseph Hooker and his first wife Frances. Botanical illustrator and wife of William Turner Thiselton--Dyer. Her husband was Assistant Director of RBG Kew (1875--1885) and later Director (1885--1905), succeeding her father
16. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 or more likely 1801--1894). Pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Himalayas, and several birds were named after him.
17. 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.
18. Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840--1900). Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of the Indian Civil Service, best known for The Imperial Gazetteer of India on which he started working in 1869, and which was eventually published in nine volumes in 1881 and later as a twenty-six volume set after his death.
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