Transcript
THE CAMP*1,
NEAR SUNNINGDALE.
TELEGRAMS, WINDLESHAM.
May 1 1909*2
My dear Stapf*3
I am returning the Vienna Balsams. On the top of the bundle is a Portfolio for Miss Smith,*4 the contents of which are enumerated in the enclosed, which please give to her.
I should much like to have drawings of the two species of the De Candollean Herb[arium] made as soon as convenient & the specimens & drawings returned to me, as I could then get rid of the D[e] Candolle Herb[arium]. One of them arrived turned up in a megma[?] of bad specimens of 3 species sent by Wallich*5 to A[lphonse] P[yramus] de C[andolle]*6 which are not in either
THE CAMP*1,
NEAR SUNNINGDALE.
TELEGRAMS, WINDLESHAM.
May 1 1909*2
My dear Stapf*3
I am returning the Vienna Balsams. On the top of the bundle is a Portfolio for Miss Smith,*4 the contents of which are enumerated in the enclosed, which please give to her.
I should much like to have drawings of the two species of the De Candollean Herb[arium] made as soon as convenient & the specimens & drawings returned to me, as I could then get rid of the D[e] Candolle Herb[arium]. One of them arrived turned up in a megma[?] of bad specimens of 3 species sent by Wallich*5 to A[lphonse] P[yramus] de C[andolle]*6 which are not in either
the Wallichian or Kew Herb[ariums]. Of 2 the specimens are so rotten that I could make nothing of them. Of the third, Best now sent, though bad, the anthers are so curious that I think I ought to m name & describe it -- I[mpatiens]. enoplanthera (armed[?] anther) a very different structure from the acute or acuminate anther of other Balsams.
The other, I[mpatiens] duthiei is a plant that Duthie*7 ought to have sent to Kew years ago, but which was not in either the Saharunpore [Saharanpur] or Calcutta collections that I named throughout. A noble species also collected by Duthie & not to be found in either the Saharunpore Herb[arium] (as sent to me) from
or from Calcutta, is I[mpatiens] jaeschkei now being figured for the "Icones" from a specimen sent without habitat to Vienna by Jaeschke*8 himself.*9 By a very curious coincidence I found a specimen in Herb[arium] Deca[is]ne[?] from Duthie only two days after I had drawn up the description from the Vienna specimen!
I have now so many endemic species from Nepal that I think I must regard that 500 miles as an area distinct from those of W[est] Himalaya & East Himalaya.
The Meebold*10 mounted specimens have just arrived, beautifully done,
many thanks
most sincerely y[our]s | Jos. D. Hooker[signature]
1. Joseph Hooker had a residence built in Sunningdale, Berkshire called 'The Camp'. Completed in 1882 he lived there full time, with his second wife Hyacinth and their family, after retiring from RBG Kew in 1885.
2. There is an e written by Otto Stapf as follows, "rec[eive]d & ack[nowledg]ed 5.V.09 | OS."
3. Otto Stapf FRS (1852--1933) an Austrian botanist and taxonomist. He moved to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1890, becoming keeper of the Herbarium in 1909--1920.
4. Matilda Smith (1854--1926). Botanical artist. A second cousin of Joseph Hooker, she was invited to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to be trained as a botanical artist. She replaced W. H. Fitch as illustrator of Curtis's Botanical Magazine. Appointed official artist at Kew in 1898.
5. Nathaniel Wallich (1786--1854).Danish surgeon who in 1815 was made superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden. When he returned to England in 1847, he had done immense work as a botanical explorer, and brought back vast collections, the final distribution of which was completed by Hooker.
6. Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle (1806--1898). French-Swiss botanist, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. He succeeded to his father's chair at the University of Geneva. He published a number of botanical works. Among them is the formulation of the first laws of Botanical Nomenclature, adopted by the International Botanical Congress in 1867 and is the basis of the current International Code of Nomenclature..
7. John Firminger Duthie (1845--1922). English botanist and explorer who was Superintendent of Saharanpur Botanical Gardens from 1875--1903. From 1903 the assistant for India in the herbarium at Kew.
8. Heinrich August Jaeshke (1817--1883). German Tibetologist, missionary, Bible translator and plant collector. From 1857 to 1868 he was based near the Tibetan border at Kyelang in northern India.
9. A note written by Otto Stapf appears at the end of the letter, an asterisk inserted in the text indicates that it relates to this statement, the note is as follows: "wrote also -- more of this may be at the university herbarium of Vienna. Shall we send Strachey's map of Kumaon? 5. V. 09 O[tto] S[tapf]"
10. Alfred Karl Meebold (1863--1952). Botanist, author and anthroposophist. A prolific traveller, he saw many continents and countries, collecting plants in India, Southern Africa, Polynesia, the Antipodes and Europe.
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