Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC556
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
JDH/2/16 f.198
Thiselton-Dyer, Sir William Turner
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
28-2-1909
© 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
 
Transcript

lessons in elocution. I cannot but conjecture that there was more migration across the Mediterranea [1 deleted word illeg.] after or during Miocene times than the existing Flora of the Atlas evidences. & that the desication[sic] of the Saharan region has obliterated much of it. but I am so ignorant of all that has been done towards the geology of that vast area, during the last 1/4 century that I have no grasp of the subject. I am enjoying what Darwin *4 called the privilege of old age, to be ignorant & not ashamed. Balsams occupy all my time. I have detailed descriptions of nearly 400 species. Their geographical distribution is wonderfully interesting -- I am now

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Feb[ruary] 28 1909
*1 THE CAMP,
NEAR SUNNINGDALE.
My dear Dyer *2
I have re-read your essay & enjoyed it even more than I did the first perusal. I do not see how it could be improved except by saying less of me. I am much interested in Gondwanaland. I attended several discourses[?] on it's plants at the Linnean *3 meeting, but owing to my deafness & his wretched delivery it is hideously[?] weak[?] carried away very little of it -- & this that this reminds me that the delivery of the successive addresses at the Jubilee meeting convinced me that no one should be allowed to speak or lecture that had not taken

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lessons in elocution. I cannot but conjecture that there was more migration across the Mediterranea [1 deleted word illeg.] after or during Miocene times than the existing Flora of the Atlas evidences. & that the desication[sic] of the Saharan region has obliterated much of it. but I am so ignorant of all that has been done towards the geology of that vast area, during the last 1/4 century that I have no grasp of the subject. I am enjoying what Darwin *4 called the privilege of old age, to be ignorant & not ashamed. Balsams occupy all my time. I have detailed descriptions of nearly 400 species. Their geographical distribution is wonderfully interesting -- I am now

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describing the Indo-Chinese species for the "Flore Générale de Indo--Chine." *5 of some 28 species, not one of which is Chinese or Malayan. In a little contribution to the Bulletin *6 I have sketched a plan for effectually comparing some contiguous Balsam floras of Asia. I am sorry that I cannot give you a copy of my paper on they Chinese my paper on the Chinese Balsams in the Paris Herb[ariu]m. I was only allowed enough to send one to the various bodies & people that had loaned me materials. & If you care to see it I will send it on to you. You have of course the "Hook[er]. Icones [Plantarum]" -- for which I am preparing another part. Have you got a copy of my essay on the flora of British India? as it appeared finally in the Gazetteer? *7 Of course the species of Balsam are all

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of Insect Evolution, & it is a question whether insects have made most Balsam or reverse. & I suspect that is the Haustellate alone that have operated. I must have examined the upward of 1000 flowers & to find an insect in [1 deleted word illeg.] one is the rarest of events, & then only non haustellate[.] On the other hand I find any amount of sand & other forms of dirt, especially in Chinese species of which so many flower in the dry dusty months[.] The plague of having to wash the stage of your microscope time upon time in to imminent danger of your dissection is very trying. I am glad that you keep so well & Harriet *8 too -- my best love to her. I am well enough but for the most troublesome eczema, that demands daily anointing & unfits me for social visits or even functions -- arms & legs are the trials, but my back is not spared. Ever dear Dyer | aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | Jos. D Hooker [signature]
Grace *9 is no worse & bears her sanatorium life with admirable courage. *10
The fact of there being 180 at least species in China & 30 or more in the Philippines, & only 3 in all Japan is one of the most ghastly facts in geography distribution. Entomology must explain it. *11

ENDNOTES


1. The printed text "TELEGRAMS, WINDLESHAM." is stamped on the left of the letter adjacent to the author's address. Beneath this stamp, text in a hand not that of the original author reads "rec'd 11.iii.09".
2. 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.
3. The Linnean Society of London is a society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. Founded in 1788, leading past Fellows of the Society included Charles Darwin. Hooker became a Fellow of the Society in 1842, and won the first Linnean Medal in 1888.
4. Charles Robert Darwin (1809--1882). English naturalist and geologist best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He was a great friend of Joseph Hooker before and after the publication of the On the Origin of Species in 1859.
5. Flore Générale de l'Indo-Chine. A classic systematic account of the flora of Indo-China, written by the French botanist Paul Henri Lecomte (1856--1934), published in Paris in five volumes between 1907 and 1931.
6. Likely refers to the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, which was introduced by Thiselton-Dyer from his position as Director the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1887 and was in print until 1941. From 1946 it continued as the Kew Bulletin.
7. The Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol 3, 1907.
8. Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer née Hooker (1854--1945). Oldest child of Joseph Hooker and his first wife Frances Henslow. Harriet was a 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.
9. Grace Ellen Hooker (1886--1953). Joseph Hooker's daughter by his first wife Frances Hooker née Henslow. Unwilling to spend her life as a lady of leisure, Grace spent years of her life ministering to the less fortunate in Bloomsbury, Lambeth and Islington. In 1901 she became a worker for the social reformer Octavia Hill.
10. This sentence of text after the signature was provided as a postscript at the foot of page 4, aligned with the left-hand margin, adjacent to Hooker's signature.
11. This sentence of text after is written vertically along the whole length of the left-hand margin on page 4. It is unclear as to where it was intended to be read, so has been transcribed at the end of page 4.

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