JDH thanks Otto Stapf for the greetings the latter conveyed on behalf of all the RBG Kew herbarium staff on the occasion of JDH's 90th birthday. He looks back on his time working in the herbarium and library of Kew as 'the happiest of my scientific life' and places great value on the work done by all the dedicated employees, without whom he could not have completed his own labours. He asks that his thanks be past to the staff along with the sentiment that JDH believes in ' he enduring scientific value & the renown of the unique establishment entrusted to their care'.
Transcript
for to it I am indebted for much of the value my own labour can claim.
Requesting you to accept yourself & convey to your fellow members of the Staff my most cordial thanks for this token of their affectionate esteem, & my devout belief in the enduring scientific value & the renown of the unique establishment entrusted to their care.
Believe me
Most sincerely yours | Jos. D. Hooker[signature]
*1
The Camp,
Sunningdale
July 12, 1907
My dear Dr Stapf,*2
The warmest congratulations and kindest wishes with which you on the part of the Herbarium Staff of Kew, greeted me on the eve of my 90th year, were indeed welcome & received with a deep feeling of gratitude.
I look back upon the many years during which I was privileged to work in the Herbarium & Library of Kew as the happiest of my Scientific life. They were years of uninterrupted devotion to duty, on the part of men who were as desirous of helping their collaborators as instructing themselves in all that concerns the Vegetable Kingdom, -- of which help I profited more than any, *3
for to it I am indebted for much of the value my own labour can claim.
Requesting you to accept yourself & convey to your fellow members of the Staff my most cordial thanks for this token of their affectionate esteem, & my devout belief in the enduring scientific value & the renown of the unique establishment entrusted to their care.
Believe me
Most sincerely yours | Jos. D. Hooker[signature]
1. This letter is not in Hooker's handwriting, although the signature appears to be his.
2. Otto Stapf (1857--1933). Austrian botanist and taxonomist, the son of Joseph Stapf, who worked in the Hallstatt salt-mines. He published the archaeological plant remains from the Late Bronze and Iron Age mines that had been uncovered by his father. Stapf moved to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1890. He was keeper of the Herbarium from 1909 to 1920 and became British citizen in 1905. He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1927. In 1908 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
3. The left hand margin of page 1 contains a list of initials believed to been written by members of staff at the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as follows: S.A.S. [Sydney Alfred Skan], J.H. [John Hillier], N.E.B. [Nicholas Edward brown], G.M. [George Massee], M.S. [Matilda Smith], R.A.R. [Robert Allen Rolfe], and T.A.S. [Thomas Archibald Sprague]. It seems likely that the letter was initialled to indicate that it had been seen by that member of staff.
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