JDH responds to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer's [WTTD] account of the death of Mary Barnard, [Noel?] Barnards daughter, she died of acute diabetes. JDH is disturbed to hear that his own daughter, WTTD's wife Harriet, has a malarious fever & approves of their plan to take her to Sidmouth to recuperate. JDH mentions the Thiselton-Dyer's new home. JDH visited the new Director of RBG Kew, David Prain, & his wife. JDH found Prain is working too hard & the Department [of Agriculture & Fisheries] is asking him to do too much outside his Kew duties. JDH also went to the RBG Kew herbarium to work on Balsams, where he found out Brandis is ill. [Dietrich] Brandis is working on the anatomy of bamboo leaves. [Eduard] Strasburger has also visited Kew where he & JDH spoke about old German botanists, & Marsileas in the Berlin Gardens. Notes that it is curious, WTTD, his son George & Bentham have ended up living on a street called Lindley [John Lindley having been a prominent orchidologist who worked at Kew]. Lady Hyacinth Hooker has gout in her knee. JDH offers to send WTTD copies of the Records of the Botanical Survey of India. Something JDH wrote for the Gazetteer has finally been printed. JDH's son Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker has secured a billet at Melbourne but JDH does not know if it is in the mining business. [William Robert] Guilfoyle was helping Brian to find work. Brian's daughter Frances has been sent to the Clemen[?] sisters.
Transcript
October 15 / 1906
THE CAMP
SUNNINGDALE
My dear Dyer*1
I thank you much for your long & interesting letter. Your account of poor Mary Barnard[']s illness & death is very sad -- I had no idea that there was an acute diabetes -- its progress in Mary's case was indeed rapid. I am glad to think that she suffered so little & that Barnard*2 was spared the anguish of being present at the end. I do hope that one of the other girls may be an able successor, though it never can be the same to the father.
October 15 / 1906
THE CAMP
SUNNINGDALE
My dear Dyer*1
I thank you much for your long & interesting letter. Your account of poor Mary Barnard[']s illness & death is very sad -- I had no idea that there was an acute diabetes -- its progress in Mary's case was indeed rapid. I am glad to think that she suffered so little & that Barnard*2 was spared the anguish of being present at the end. I do hope that one of the other girls may be an able successor, though it never can be the same to the father.
We had heard occasionally of Harriet*3 being but poorly, not however so ill as you describe. How can she have got Malarious fever? I am very glad to know that you have so good a doctor within reach -- It does look like a reoccurrence of the Mediterranean fever. I think that you cannot be wrong in trying Sidmouth -- I shall be anxious to hear how it answers.
It is good news that your new home & summer days agree with you & that you like the neighbourhood. What a lot of good visitors you have had!
We paid a short visit to Mr & Mrs Prain*4 the other day, & found them completely settled. He is working far too hard, apparently smothered in demands daily from the Department [of Agriculture & Fisheries?], which must seriously interfere with strictly Kew duties. I went over to the Herbarium on Balsam work, & found all well but Brandis*5, who looks seriously ill. His sticking to Kew in his present constitution is inexplicable. He is pottering over the anatomy of Bamboo leaves, to no good purpose that I can make out, fide his papers.
He, Brandis, brought Strasburger*6 here one afternoon. I was really pleased to see the latter, & we had a pleasant talk over old German Botanists, & from him a long yarn over Aposperrus[?].
Marsileas in the Berlin Gardens where all Brown's[?] species bear his name on labels in pots of the M. quadrifolia!
I am glad that your George*7 is so comfortably settled, the turning up of a Lindley road with him, & Bentham & with you is curious.
Lady Hooker is suffering a great deal with a gouty knee, at night especially. She sends kind regards with my united love to Harriet.
Ever affectionately yours | Jos. D Hooker [signature]
I am at the Balsams every day & all day -- they are the most unmanageable of plants in every way. Do you get the Records of Bot[anical] Survey of India? If not I will send you a copy of the Epitome -- At last the sketch for the Gazetteer is printed, & I have copies with a request not to [1 word struck through, illeg.] distribute them yet yet!
*8 Brian [Harvey Hodgson Hooker] has got a billet of £250 at Melbourne, presumably not in the mining line. All we know is above in telegraph – Guilfoyle*9 interested himself very much in attempting to get him work of some sort. We have sent his Frances*10 to the Clemen[?] Sisters.
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 the Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
2. Noel Barnard (187--1911). French botanist who discovered the relationship between orchid germination and fungi in 1899.
3. Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer (1854--1945). Eldest daughter of Joseph Hooker who married Thiselton-Dyer in 1877.
4. Sir David Prain (1857--1944). Scottish physician and botanist who served in India in the Indian Medical Service. In 1887 he was appointed curator of the Calcutta Herbarium. In 1905 he became Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
5. Sir Dietrich Brandis (1824-1907). German forester who worked with the British Imperial Forestry Service in Colonial India. Considered to be the "Father" of Tropical Forestry. Settled in Kew in 1901 to prepare a Botanical Forest Manual. Returned to Bonn in 1906.
6. Eduard Strasburger (1844--1912). Polish botanist who was head of the Botanisches Institut at the University of Bonn.
7. George Henry Thiselton-Dyer (1879--1944). Son of Harriet and William Thiselton-Dyer. Grandson of Joseph Hooker.
8. The text which runs from here until the end of the letter is written vertically up the left margin of page 1.
9. William Robert Guilfoyle (1840--1912). Australian landscape gardener and botanist who was the architect of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne.
10. Frances Hooker (1891--1941). Daughter of Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker, granddaughter of Joseph Hooker with whom she lived for a time whilst her father was in Australia.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic image(s) of this document where possible.
Powered by Aetopia