JDH comments that he has received some corrections from [Miles Joseph] Berkeley but does not think that the number of errors justify the printing of a new page. Berkeley's manuscript was illegible, JDH had to make a new copy & look up species names in [Elias Magnus] Fries. Berkeley's corrections are generally not good, those he did for THE LONDON JOURNAL OF BOTANY contained many errors. Mentions that a paper Berkeley produced with Montague contained 70 mistakes. JDH finds it curious that [William] Wilson & [Thomas] Taylor were pleased with the work when JDH added a great deal to both of their contributions, at least Berkeley's work is his own. JDH is pleased that his father has 'weathered upon' [Lovell] Reeve, the publisher, & that the [BOTANICAL REGISTER] is coming to an end. JDH is trying to write an introduction to FLORA ANTARCTICA but he is very caught up with lectures. Discusses the series of lectures he is giving at Edinburgh [University], he does not use the useless material he is given but speaks freely rather than reading & it engages his students. He has or will cover the subjects of plant physiology, nutrition, circulation, life, irritability, respiration the Linnean system & the origin & distribution of species; he finds the last a particularly challenging subject. [Gilbert] McNab arrives in London soon. Asks that Bessy [Elizabeth Hooker] give [Joseph] Dayman their copy of FOLIA SYBILLINA. JDH has heard from Dawson [Dawson William Turner?], who is going to Yarmouth. JDH has left letters for a Mrs Sprot & Admiral Tait. JDH mentions other people that he still has to call upon in Edinburgh including the Gibsons, Craigs, Mackes, McKenzies, Kays & Fullertons. Comments that Dr [Robert] Graham is still ill.
Transcript
that I can hardly make any use of them. One thing I must say, that the students pay devoted attention to them, when especially I give them without much reading. I have still got nutrition, circulation, Life & Irritability to go through, besides the origin of species! truly a luminous subject, I find it hard enough to trace their distribution, let alone where they come from. About Respiration I made a Cock & Bull story that charmed the men, it was a sad plague however. The Linnean classes I have gone through & they are liking the natural very well.
McNab's son*8 will arrive in London on Saturday, & go to Kew probably on Monday. It is the 3rd son now gone abroad & the old man feels the loss much: he is such an excellent old creature & has made every thing as smooth for my lecturing as possible. I am very glad that Twining*8a will give his [mss damaged, one word illeg.]
Edinb[u]r[gh]
June 18 1845
My dear Father*1a
The accompanying came yesterday from Berkely[sic] *1b, I do not know what I had better say to him, my own opinion being, that however much I may be to blame, the errata are not worth the printing a new page for. His m[anu]s[cript] was so very bad that I had to make a clean copy of it & to look up the specific names in Fries*1, they being next thing to illegible. As to his own correcting, I do not think it would have stood much stead, considering that his in the L. J. B.*2 is one cloud of errors. I think it was 70 odd that Montague counted in the one they published together. His original m[anu]s[cript] is still in existence & he shall have it when I get home. It is curious that Wilson*3 & Taylor*4 are
the only two that have expressed themselves pleased with the work & I added a great deal more to theirs former & altered & added more less in theirs latter than either to Harveys*5 or Berkeleys, certainly the latters (Berkeleys) stand as his own work solely. I am very glad that you have weathered upon Reeves*6, he is not a sharp man of business at all, but a close one in some respects. It is truly a matter of rejoicing that the Register*6a is coming to an end & Reeves ought not to have wished to secure the whole advantage of it: it is well that the bargain had not been ratified. I do all I can to get writing some of the Introduction to Flo[ra] Antart[ica]*7 but cannot yet. Three evening lectures on physiology are cruel hard & what are put into my hands are such trash
that I can hardly make any use of them. One thing I must say, that the students pay devoted attention to them, when especially I give them without much reading. I have still got nutrition, circulation, Life & Irritability to go through, besides the origin of species! truly a luminous subject, I find it hard enough to trace their distribution, let alone where they come from. About Respiration I made a Cock & Bull story that charmed the men, it was a sad plague however. The Linnean classes I have gone through & they are liking the natural very well.
McNab's son*8 will arrive in London on Saturday, & go to Kew probably on Monday. It is the 3rd son now gone abroad & the old man feels the loss much: he is such an excellent old creature & has made every thing as smooth for my lecturing as possible. I am very glad that Twining*8a will give his [mss damaged, one word illeg.]
letter. If Dayman*9 has not come down yet, will you ask Bessy*9a to give him our "Folia Sybillina", that she & I made, only the volume with portraits in: I will bring it back upon my return: I heard from Dawson*9b yesterday on his way to Yarmouth, he does not say whether he will go to Kew. It is very kind of Mr Ramsey to think of calling on me. I left Mr Hudson's letter to Mrs Sprot today, she lives in a very fine (outside) house in Moray Place but no one seems to know her here. I shall leave another for Admiral Tait*9c who is a crony of a nice old Ad[miral] Johnstone here that I know. Tait has just come back from somewhere. I have still to go to the Gibsons, Craigs, Rigbys, Mackes, McKenzies & Hay's this week, I am also invited to the Fullerton's & others.
Do you know any thing about electrifying crops? Dr Graham*10 is no better at all, but sleeps more than formerly I think. Best love to all,
Ever your most affectionate son | Joseph D Hooker[signature]
Weather cloudy & hot
Yesterday rain from 2--9[?]*11
1a. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1841--1865). British Botanist. Joseph Dalton Hooker's Father. Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University from 1820 to 1841 and the first official Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1841 until his death in 1865, upon which his son Joseph succeeded him as Director.
1b. Miles Joseph Berkeley (1803--1889) English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology. Leading authority on fungi.
1. Elias Magnus Fries (1794--1878) Swedish mycologist and botanist
2. Hooker, William Jackson (ed) (1842--1848) London Journal of Botany
3. William Wilson (1799--1871). Botanist specialising in mosses
4. Thomas Taylor (1786--1848). English botanist, bryologist, and mycologist; collaborated with W J Hooker on the Musci exotica.
5. William Henry Harvey (1811-- 1866). Irish botanist specialising in algae
6. Lovell Reeve (1814--1865). Publisher, dealt with eminent scientists including the Hookers, the geologist Charles Lyell, and the naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. He was considered the leading Natural History publisher of his time 'one of the most eminent scientific publishers this country has produced' said the Bookseller in Dec 1865. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society (1846) and of the Geological Society (1853), but, despite being sponsored by Charles Darwin, was unsuccessful in his attempt (1849) to become a fellow of the Royal Society.
6a. The Botanical Register, subsequently known as Edwards's Botanical Register, was an illustrated horticultural magazine that ran from 1815 to 1847. It was started by the botanical illustrator Sydenham Edwards, who had previously illustrated The Botanical Magazine, but left after a dispute with the editors. Edwards edited five volumes of The Botanical Register in five years, before his death in 1819. After Edwards' death, editorial duties passed to the publisher, James Ridgway, who issued a further nine volumes between 1820 and 1828. In 1829, John Lindley was appointed editor, and he adopted the title Edwards's Botanical Register. A further nineteen volumes were issued before the magazine was discontinued in 1847.
7. Hooker, Jospeh Dalton (1844) Flora Antarctica: the botany of the Antarctic voyage. This was the first of three volumes of Antarctic botany written by Hooker.
8. Gilbert McNab (1815--1859). Medical doctor who undertook botanical investigations in Jamaica. Third son of William McNab (1780--1848) who was foreman at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1803-- c.1810 and then curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh until his death in 1848.
8a. Thomas Twining III (1806--1895). Authority on technical education. Member of the Botanical Society of London, studied the flora of Twickenham where he resided. One of the 'Twinings Tea' family.
9. Joseph Dayman. Mate on the HMS 'Erebus' during James Clark Ross' Antarctic expedition (1839--1843), on which Joseph Hooker served as assistant surgeon. Dayman was one of three officers who remained in charge of the magnetic observatory in Tasmania. Dayman was later lieutenant on the HMS 'Rattlesnake' on which Huxley was naturalist.
9a. Elizabeth (Bessy) Evans-Lombe née Hooker (1820--1898). Joseph Hooker's sister. Married Thomas Robert Evans-Lombe in 1853.
9b. Probably Dawson William Turner (1815--1885). Joseph Hooker's maternal uncle, who was his contemporary in age. The Turner family had banking interests in Great Yarmouth.
9c. James Haldane Tait (1771--1845), naval officer; promoted to Rear Admiral in 1841
10. Robert Graham (1786 --1845). Physician and botanist; in 1818 he became the first professor of botany at Glasgow University. He transferred to Edinburgh University in 1820, having been appointed regius professor of botany and keeper of the King's garden, and he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1821. He died in August 1845.
11. Written at left hand side of signature
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