JDH gives Sir Wiliam Turner Thiselton-Dyer his opinion on Otto Stapf's glossary or 'Clavis' for an unspecified publication, likely a Colonial flora. He specifically mentions: that beginning with Andropogoneae is not the sequence followed by nearly all other Colonial Floras apart from [August] Grisebach's, & the number of tribes Stapf has assigned to South Africa & India, as well as the placement of Zoysieae & Oryzeae out of Paniceae. JDH does however agree with some of Stapf's new tribes. He comments on some features that would make it difficult for Stapf to rearrange the Clavis more on the lines of the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA. He criticises the complexity of some of the descriptions of the characters of orders & advises that the Clavis should be clear & simple for convenient use by colonists. JDH is going to Manchester.
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passages at all. The correction of the press too will be very heavy & I think he will want help for that.--
If I can be of any use to him I shall be very glad.
We go to Manchester tomorrow returning on Wednesday.
Ever aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | JD Hooker [signature]
March 27 /[18]98
The Camp,
Sunningdale.
My dear Dyer*1
I have given my best attention to Stapf's*2 clavis.
I see no good reason for beginning with Andropogoneae & thus departing from the sequence followed in all the Colonial flora except Grisebach's*3.
I thought that Stapf & I were pretty well agreed as to the main tribes & their positions -- but I see that he has 18 for S[outh]. Africa against 11 for all India. Some of his new ones are I think good,
but his putting Zoysieae & Oryzeae out of Paniceae (i.e out of his Series I) puzzles me.
As to his recasting the Clavis more on the lines of Fl[ora]. B[ritish]. India, I do not know what to say --: he has 14 tribes without any break in Series II, against 7 in Fl[ora]. B[ritish]. India. On the other hand he has some 23 genera of grasses that are not Brit[ish]. Ind[ia]., & that complicates matters. He should understand that the convenience of Colonists should be regarded & his clavis be simplified accordingly.
His character for the order is very involved, & I cannot follow some
passages at all. The correction of the press too will be very heavy & I think he will want help for that.--
If I can be of any use to him I shall be very glad.
We go to Manchester tomorrow returning on Wednesday.
Ever aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | JD Hooker [signature]
1. 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.
2. Otto Stapf (1857--1933). Austrian botanist and taxonomist. He moved to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1890 and was keeper of the Herbarium at Kew from 1909 to 1920.
3. August Grisebach (1814--1879). German botanist and phytogeographer.
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