Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC618
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom
Asa Gray correspondence 1
Gray, Asa
Archives of the Gray Herbarium
12-6-1873
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Harvard Asa Gray Correspondence
2016 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 

JDH clarifies that he is not the source of a request for Asa Gray to review his publication GENERA PLANTARUM. Especially as he is under the impression Gray would have nothing complimentary to say about his work on the order Rubiaceae, despite the effort JDH has put into & his belief that he has corrected more mistakes than he has made. He notes that [Sir William Turner] Thiselton-Dyer corrected the work before it went to press. JDH has just returned from a tour of the left bank of the Rhine, Eifel country [volcanic region of Germany], with his wife [Frances Hooker nee Henslow], [John] Lubbock & the Grant-Duffs. They also saw Luxembourg & Treves [Trier]. JDH has asked the publisher, Longman, to send Gray a copy of Decaisne & Le Maout [A GENERAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY DESCRIPTIVE AND ANALYTICAL]. JDH is currently working on the FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA with Thiselton-Dyer but they are hampered by shortcomings in [Carl Friedrich Philipp von] Martius' work & the illness of [Michael Packenham] Edgeworth & [Thomas] Thomson. [George] Bentham is currently working on Mimosaceae for Martius' work. A young man who works for Micheli, of Geneva, is at RBG Kew working on Onograceae & Rubiaceae. Bibb has sent RBG Kew a collection of Illinois plants. JDH hopes to go on holiday to the Auvergne with [Thomas Henry] Huxley. JDH also has much to do reforming business procedures at the Royal Society & arranging the Society's move to new apartments.

Transcript


ROYAL GARDENS KEW
June 12/[18]73
Dear Old Gray*1
Thanks for your note & the plants coming to Herb[arium] of which I have told Oliver.*2 Assuredly I had nothing whatever to do with the application to you for Review of Gen[era] Plant[arum] -- I should have told you if I had -- certes I am glad if it is so, as it appears you have not a good word to spare for the unlucky Rubiaceae! (entre nous it was sent to Dyer*3 for correction of press.) -- Well, whatever may be said for the general work, I did think I had corrected more blunders, & put taken more genera uut out

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ROYAL GARDENS KEW
June 12/[18]73
Dear Old Gray*1
Thanks for your note & the plants coming to Herb[arium] of which I have told Oliver.*2 Assuredly I had nothing whatever to do with the application to you for Review of Gen[era] Plant[arum] -- I should have told you if I had -- certes I am glad if it is so, as it appears you have not a good word to spare for the unlucky Rubiaceae! (entre nous it was sent to Dyer*3 for correction of press.) -- Well, whatever may be said for the general work, I did think I had corrected more blunders, & put taken more genera uut out

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their wrong places & put them into their (approximately) right ones, than it has fallen to most Botanists to do in a single order of any size in late years -- However no one is a judge of his own performance, & I dare say I exaggerate the difficulty of the task though cannot overrate the years I spent in dissecting & redissecting what are really little better than bits of coal to get at the insides of. -- I shall reserve my defence (if I can defend myself) till the article appears.
We have just returned from a little tour in the left bank of the Rhine, the Eifel country, -- which we (wife & I) went with [John] Lubbock &

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Mr & Mrs Grant-Duff*4 (Under-Se[cretar]y for India) -- we were only 10 days away, & saw Luxembourg & Treves*5 for the first time.
I have written to Longman*6 to send you a copy of Decaisne*7 & [Emmanuel le] Maout*7a.
I am getting on with Flora of British India, but the perfunctory way in which [Carl Friedrich Philipp von] Martius work is done has thrown me out terribly & given Dyer & me a deal of very unnecessary work -- & [Michael Packenham] Edgeworth's break down is disastrous: no less than [Thomas] Thomson's.
Bentham*8 is at Mimos[ac]eae for Martius' work. A pleasant young man of the team of Micheli of Geneva is here &

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working at the Onograceae, he will I hear take up Rubiaceae.
Bibb has sent us a charming collection of Illinois plants.
I hope to take my vacation early this year & go to Auvergne with Huxley*9 the first week in July for a month -- & so get all the quiet Autumn for work here when I shall have little to do in the Gardens. -- & before the R[oyal] S[ociety] will claim my time. There is much to be done there in the way of reform in business procedures etc. & the new apartment will require a good deal of consideration in the matter of Library etc.
We are all well & in status quo.
E[ver] y[ours] affect[ionately] | JD Hooker [signature]

ENDNOTES


1. Asa Gray (1810--1888) graduated in medicine 1831, but was also an active botanist. In 1834 he was appointed assistant to John Torrey, Professor of Chemistry at College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, also a keen botanist; the two men undertook botanical work together. Gray spent the year 1838-1839 studying in European herbaria. In 1842 he was appointed Fisher Professor of Botany at Harvard University. Considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century, he was instrumental in unifying the taxonomic knowledge of the plants of North America. Gray, Hooker and Darwin were lifelong friends and colleagues. Hooker and Gray conducted research for Darwin.
2. Daniel Oliver (1830--1916). Botanist. He made botanical studies in northern Britain and in Ireland, becoming a fellow of the Edinburgh Botanical Society In 1851 and of the Linnaean Society in 1853. In 1858 at the invitation of Sir William Hooker he began work as an assistant in the Herbarium. In 1859, he initiated lectures in Botany for Kew's trainee gardeners which led to his appointment as Professor of Botany at University College London in 1861, a post he held until 1888. From 1864 to 1890 he was also Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew. He was elected member of the Royal Society in 1863 and published a number of works including Lessons in Elementary Botany,1864 and Flora of Tropical Africa 1868--1877. From 1890 until 1895 he held the editorship of Icones Plantarum.
3. 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.
4. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (1829--1906). Scottish politician, author and administrator. He served as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for India from 1868 to 1874, Under Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1880 to 1881 and the Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886. During the last appointment he took great interest in the gardens of Government Houses in Madras [Chennai] & Ootacamund [Udagamandalam]. Letters from Grant Duff to RBG Kew can be found in our online collection of Directors' Correspondence hosted at http://plants.jstor.org/
5. Treves is the former English name for the city of Trier, Germany.
6. London-based publishing company.
7. Joseph Decaisne (1807--1882). French botanist and agronomist.
7a. An English edition of Decaisne and Le Maout's work: Traité Général de Botanique Descriptive et Analytique (1868), was published by Longmans Green & Co., London in 1873, under the title A General System of Botany Descriptive and Analytical. The translation from the original French was done by Joseph Hooker's wife Frances Harriet Hooker.
8. George Bentham (1800--1884) Nephew and heir to Jeremy Bentham for whom he also acted a secretary. After his uncle's death he devoted himself to botany, especially plant classification. At the invitation of Sir William Hooker he began work at Kew where he remained for 27 years He collaborated with Joseph Hooker on the Genera Plantarum (3 vols 1862-1883) an influential work on plant taxonomy which is the foundation of many modern systems of classification. He donated his herbarium of more than 100,000 specimens to Kew. His Handbook of British Flora remained a standard work into the 20th century
9. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825--1895). English biologist (comparative anatomist).  His vigorous public support for Charles Darwin's evolutionary naturalism earned him the nickname "Darwin's Bulldog." His organisational efforts, public lectures and writing helped elevate the place of science in modern society.

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