Hotel de Londres[,] Rue des Petils[,] Regustins
Paris
Feb[ruar]y 13 1845
*1My dear Father
I have just received your kind letter of the 10th, & hasten to answer it, though it will not be by return of post as it is now late. -- Had I known what more to say, from here, on the subject of the Edinburgh chair, than to announce my anticipation of Dr Grahams Mr Brown's*2 offer to propose me to Graham*3 I would have done so said more, but I must confess that I do not yet see how I could have expatiated upon the subject, the question being simply whether, should Dr Graham agree to have me, would I agree to go? With regard to not writing to Mr Brown himself, I certainly intended to do so, but did not, I made my letter to you longer than intended & put off the other: I am sorry that this should have caused you trouble & uneasiness, but I do not think I ever shewed[sic] myself so punctual a person in these matters as you seem to have taken me for. Carelessness in correspondence is so common a fault, that I am not in the least surprised at myself being guilty of it, though you are; this is however neither excuse nor apology for my fault, which I have by this post asked Mr Brown to forgive.
With regard to returning here from this, what you have said is quite difficult in that lead[?] to determine my return without visiting Germany, [t]hat was the object of my journey, though I wonder at you thinking that the cold [wo]uld be likely to deter me after coming this length: as far as perseverance [is] wanted my own is quite equal to the rest of [the] journey & there is no prospect of the roads being blocked up at this season: my London clerk goes from one end of Europe to the other in spite of the season.
I assure you that I am quite sensible of your kindness in doing so much for me. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties occurring to you & to Mr Brown, do not however think that I want to throw or to leave all the trouble on your hands, your former letters say that neither yourself or Brown think my return necessary

that the whole thing is in an embryo state; that it is best to be done whilst I am away; & that no exertion on my part is necessary -- surely after this it is not wonderful that I should have left the matter wholly in your hands, who so kindly volunteered to do all, whilst I was engaged in a mixture of business & round of pleasure which hardly leaves me time to write to my friends at all, much less allow of business my giving proper attentions to affairs of so wholly a different nature from those I ever engaged in & from which I am so far removed. Your[sic] expecting more from me I think arises from over anxiety from my welfare, which my speedy return will I should hope remove.
From the enclosures, in my mother's hand-writing, it appears that Dr Graham accepts my assistance, my duties therefore lie wholly with him, they must I suppose consist in giving his lectures to his students, especially as he says that should he feel able he will return[?] the assistance. As far as I can here see, the whole matter appears perfectly clear, & simply to be, that I am to go & read his lectures or on the other hand it may be to concoct a course of my own, or your's[sic], or a mixture; as far as duty is concerned I see no other consideration; there are however matters of a private [one word crossed through illeg.] nature, that have occurred months ago to me, in anticipating such an event as has now turned up (for I assure you there is not the most trifling circumstance that I have not balanced with its pros & cons & probabilities, long ago, on this subject). & these are connected with my personal position in Edinburgh; Graham, as I dreaded, offers me his home, which I can under no conditions whatsoever accept, this is awkward, as he will naturally say that my refusal may be owing to its not being good enough, & fifty wrong causes, amongst which he will, with some regret perhaps, include the right: & yet refusing his offer lays him under an immense obligation to me, which living or dying he cannot repay. Now, though I do not myself feel that it is possible for me to take too much trouble for one who has been so kind to me, nor grudge any expense, he will naturally feel that, in refusing his offer, I am increasing the debt in the most disagreeable of all ways, by increasing voluntarily my own expenses & refusing the only compensation

it is in his power, generous as he is, to offer. There are however difficulties which no forethought can avert, & which will remain as they now are until Graham dies & of this nature are the only difficulties that I foresee, baring such as require physical exertion, or self command on my part, these such rest wholly with myself.
I have been very busy since I wrote last, chiefly in the Herbarium of the Jardin des Plantes, which grows in magnitude under my eyes, its riches are very great & the persons connected with it are all so extremely kind to me, that I can hardly thank them enough, they have given me 300 species of New Zealand plants, &[?] chiefly from the middle Isl[an]d: & where they have duplicates of other things are quite willing to send the first set to your Herbarium. I have not the face to ask for more without making them more returns first, but have told them that after sending them Jamaica & W. E Ind[ian]. things, I should expect what they have of Madagascan & the French Is[lan]d: these they would give me now I am sure, could I look them out myself, but they are all ill, Tulasne*4 & Decaisne*5 who do that work, Naudin*6 (Planchon's*7 friend) is not skilled enough and Mr Rauol[?] who looks out the New Zealandes, with me, also is ignorant of foreign general Botany. I am also more anxious to have duplicates of scarce curious things, which require personal application, than general Herbaria which they can send at any time. I have the splendid new Azolla from the White Nile, in the 4th degree of Latitude, & splendid specimens, also the new Kigelia from the same country[,] both flowers and fruit, & Decaisne's new genus of Plantaginae, Bougueria, if they have a duplicate of the Napoleona I am to have it, they say it is certainly the plant of Pabst[?], but they think not of Lindley, I expect you have both. Brongniart*8 & Decaisne are most kind, & so is Richard*9 & Jussieu*10a, though the latter does not ask me to his house, as the rest do. I was at a very large party at Richard's yesterday with 20 people at dinner & twice the number afterwards, there was the widow of the famous May[,] Laplace*10 & Orfila*11 & other men of great note. I saw a fine set of Abyssinian drawings, made by a party who explored that country, 5 went and one returned, there were also 100 drawings of plants, sent[?] Cape forms, Barbecenia[?] the

same as the Madagascan ones! Gladioli, Satyrium, & lots of other Cape forms. Richard will give you a set of the plants, which are very good. He says you never thanked him for the Flora of Cuba (I think I understood him right) that he left for you with Lindley*12, & if you tell him what you want of it he will complete it, so I have stopped the order for it. He also says he has the commencement of the Icones Filicum, from you, but you have not furnished that to him, he hopes you will only do so if you have the odd plants, but there is no alternative now. he is considered here an excellent fellow & he is very fond of you, indeed everyone said that of him, that he is constantly talking about you. He is no great Botanist, but in the way of much. He gave me all the New Zealand plants I wanted from Stewarts Isl[an]d. but there is not a new species amongst them I fear. The M[oun]t[ain]s of the W[est] of the middle isl[an]d are my only hope for New Zealand novelty. I spent a whole day with Decaisne, over his drawings &c, they are most beautiful, masterly & truly Botanical: he is too a most amiable & excellent fellow, so modest & well informed, by far the best Botanist here on all points. He sent to N Normandy on purpose for seaweed to show me his marvellous discovery of the animalcules in the organs of Fuci[?], I suppose it is the most curious of recent discoveries & opens the widest field for discovery. I am quite astonished with what he has shown me. He has arranged the Fuci of the Herb[arium] most beautifully. There is some mistake about your Asclepiadaeae, he wished to have named & described all, but understood from Webb that you were afraid to send such bulk. H[erbarium] work is now done, but he offers to name, all your's & to better hands they could not be confided. The bulk of the Jardin Asclep[iadaeae] is about (I think) 2/3ds more that your's but, I can say no more: Decaisne naming your's will afford the best comparison of them. He has drawings of the flowers of all the genera, & of more than half the species, beautifully done. Stapelia Munbyana is his Bucerosia, whenever you are inclined to publish it he will send you his drawing & descript[ion] or of anything else he has. I have a beautiful drawing of his of the Bougueria, for the Icones, & a specimen, it has not been hitherto figured. his whole pay is £62 pr. annum, & yet he takes my book; but every one here considers him a model of generosity. I saw Chili[sic] Gay*13yesterday, he is coming to London in 3 months, to see your herbarium chiefly, I advised him to take some plants with him, Jussieu was to have described his things, but is too lazy[.] Barnaoud [Barnéoud]*14(who writes on Plantago) is to do them, but is, from what I have seen, wholly incompetent for so formidable a task, as Gay has 4000 species (he says)

lest I should forget, Mougeot*15 & Nestller*16 [Nestler] are in distress that you have not acknowledged the receipt of the last numbers of their work & asked Montague*17 to ask me about it. Some other foreigner also wrote to Montague to ask me about the receipt of some books or specimens, but I forget who I have asked about Lenormand's*18 Algae, which are considered here as extremely good, whether it is however advisable for you to purchase them, when so very small a proportion are new, is another question; here you are considered as having a princely fortune, equal only to D[?], for he is the only rival you have in purchasing in Europe. My own advice would be to give up purchasing for the present wholly, we have far more plants than we know how to keep in order, far more expenses, which are annually increasing, than we have the means to cover, & the prospect of your situation being ameliorated are, as remote as ever. My Edinburgh business will call for all my own resources & for the present will make us poorer, whatever the upshot may be. The increasing cost of a collection has caused Bentham*19, Lindley, Webb*20 & a host of other Botanists to cease any purchases, but such as are most necessary, the number of collections on sale is [1 word illeg.] greater & their magnitude yearly increases the cost of maintaining the general Herbarium, which is larger than you well know how to keep. Indeed there is now no resource but the Gov[ernmen]t. relieving you of the Expense of housing it. The Magazine is alas in a bad state, should either of my sisters marry you must endow them, should I not attain the Edinbro. chair, there will have been a further cost: in short you are wholly out of the way of increasing your capital, there are many reasonable grounds for supposing it will soon be diminished. It does seem harsh in me to restrain you from increasing your Herbarium in a way so profitable to the collection, but the formation of a Herbarium is not the chief end of your life; it is already the 2d in Europe, & the most expensive, for the dried plants here are not so expensively kept by any means, nor do the Museum purchase as you do. The expense of books, is also augmenting yearly & plants without books, are useless, though the latter must often be had: I do feel quite sure that you cannot on your own means support a Herbarium which is, as you wish, to keep pace with the progress of Botany.
I shall now wait till I hear from you how you would wish my return: your chief wish is I suppose to get Blumes*21 & Siebold's*22 plants; that I can do by taking Lyden & the Hague as my way home or as soon as you answer this I shall start via Brussels, Warsaw[?] Linden[?], [1 word illeg.] & Galeotti. I am sorry that I wrote to Schomburgk*23 a week

ago asking him to meet [one word crossed through, illeg.] me in Berlin, next week, for I was to have started on Monday for Berlin. I have now written to put that off & sent back the various parcels the people here gave me for Germany & am ready for your wishes ab[out] Holland & a speedy return. With regard to the Admiralty they know & care nothing about me, the letter you sent was unsigned & informal, supposing me to be on half. pay. It is a sample of the ungentlemanly manner they delight to treat officers. I should have written for more leave, but that is not now worth while & my being a week after due will not make much matter, with regard to going to Edinb[urgh]., the best plan would be to say nothing about it to them, or to ask Beaufort*24: they will know nothing about it, if we say nothing, & if we do they will commence making difficulties at once: this is however after consideration. Humboldt*25 has just paid me a visit with this letter for you. The weather has broken & we have a nasty thaw. Best love to Grandpapa & all, kind regards to Plancheon[.]
Ever your most affectionate son | Jos D Hooker[signature]
*26[two lines of text illeg. mss damaged] I would wish you to tell Reeves*27 that we think it better to close for the present with 10th part, that will (or perhaps an 11th of letterpress & index &c) be a complete & beautiful Flora by itself of Auckl[an]d & Campbell Isl[an]d ready for sale. The commencement of the other Antarctic grant will be too formidable a task to state any date for under present circumstances: this will be matter for March April & May.
To
Sir W. J. Hooker
Kew
near London