Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC766
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
HNR/2/1/3 f.103
Ridley, Henry Nicholas
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
21-10-1890
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to H. N. Ridley
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 
Transcript

A minute Bulboph. of yours from Singapore Cho Chu Kang (or Rang?) is I think B. Modestum, but the leaves are shorter & broader. I do not know what your C. tenuicaulis is, nor am I clear about your pulchellum, but really it is most tantalizing to have such scraps to work on.
I was sorry to hear of your trip to the Cocos Iles [sic], where there is no botanical interest for you compared to what you have at your door.
The number of new things that Mister Cantley[?]*3 sent from the woods at the back of the Garden or close by show that the neighbourhood must abound in [1 word illeg] & new things.
I had overlooked ​Ciropet[alum][?] longiscapum & have introduced 'Y.[?] & B.[?] character[?] into the St Supplement. Did you observe that the pseudobulb is

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Camp Sunningdale
Apr[il][?] 21/[18]90
Dear Mr Ridley*1
I have been anxiously awaiting specimens of some of the things you have written about to me, & that I should include in the supplement to the Orchideae now preparing for press, & especially specimen of Bulbophyllum Striatellum which you describe as having the petals[?] many as long as the sepals minus minus their tails[?]; & the stelids[?] as short, oblate[?]; whereas in your drawing the broad part of the sepals is twice as long as the petals & their stelids[?] are Lubulate[?].
I have described a small Bulboph [1 word illeg] of yours from a mere scrap as C[ymbidium] Concinnum. It is from Singapore & near C. Roxburghii. I shall figure it in I[cones] Plant[arum]*2.

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A minute Bulboph. of yours from Singapore Cho Chu Kang (or Rang?) is I think B. Modestum, but the leaves are shorter & broader. I do not know what your C. tenuicaulis is, nor am I clear about your pulchellum, but really it is most tantalizing to have such scraps to work on.
I was sorry to hear of your trip to the Cocos Iles [sic], where there is no botanical interest for you compared to what you have at your door.
The number of new things that Mister Cantley[?]*3 sent from the woods at the back of the Garden or close by show that the neighbourhood must abound in [1 word illeg] & new things.
I had overlooked ​Ciropet[alum][?] longiscapum & have introduced 'Y.[?] & B.[?] character[?] into the St Supplement. Did you observe that the pseudobulb is

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2 leaved?
You have not yet sent the drawings of your new genus, promised in April last.
With regard to Dendrob[ium] aduncum & hercoglossum you are right, that the Bot[anical] Mag[azine] plate 6784 is hercoglossum, but in your letter you transpose[?] the cheracle[?]
It is D. Aduncum that has the naked area on the chute[?] of the lip, as well figured by Lindley Bot[anical] Reg[ister]*4 1846 t.15. I had no specimen of it when I did[?]. I have corrected the ed[itio]n[?] of Fl[ora of] B[ritish] I[ndia]*5 in citing Bot. Mag & [1 word illeg] for aduncum & introduced hercoglossum as Malayan on your authority. The stelids[?] of both are variable[?] as to [1 word illeg] or are quite entire[?]. I have not much faith in the toothy[?][1 word illeg] stelids[?]*6 Are the Lankawis [Langkawis] British? I do not find them in my atlasses [sic].
? is it Dinjati[?] = belonging to Sumatra, ie. Dutch?
I shall be happy to transmit your paper on Bromheadias to the Linnaean & if I have time I will look it over. Of course you will have loads to publish independent [end of word or sentence missing?]

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what I think is a pity[?] [is] that Fl[ora of] B[ritish] I[ndia] should not be up to date with the discoveries of official British Botanists in India. I have never delayed sending you names[?] even of scraps & notes most troublesome to analyse. I did not cite Eria Dillwynii under [1 word illeg] though I think thought it most likely the same, not being an[?] Indian species & that set of Erias are so bad a lot that I was shy of your citing extra Indian localities of plants described as different in so much under 45 Griffithii.
As[?] I understand you that D. longicaule[?] is [1 word struck through, illeg.] in [1 word illeg] New Guinea as well as Singapore I will look to inauditum.
I am longing to know more of Cyprisse[?] Sabuletorum.
I wish you could some day get again to Buitengey[?] & carefully collate the [1 word illeg] orchid with those of Fl[ora of] B[ritish] I[ndia] & get drawings also -- No doubt some of my new Malayan speci[es][?] are [1 word illeg], but the descriptions do not enable me to identify this.
I look to you for heaps of addenda & [1 word illeg] to Fl[ora of] B[ritish] I[ndia]. The Linn[aean] Soc[iety] will be the best organ for publication having regard to its great circulation.
Ever sinc[erel]y yr | J.D. Hooker [signature] Mr Baker*7 has finished the Salicornia[?]

ENDNOTES


1. Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855--1956). English botanist, geologist and naturalist who spent much of his life in Singapore, where he was the first Scientific Director in charge of botanical gardens. In this role he introduced rubber as a commercial product to Malaysia & improved the method of tapping. He explored widely around Penang & Malacca. He retired to England in 1911 and worked on a five volume flora of the Malay Peninsula, published from 1922 to 1925. In 1930 he published a seminal work on plant dispersal: The Dispersal of Plants Throughout the World.
2. Icones Plantarum Or, Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks of New or Rare Plants. Icones Plantarum, initiated by Sir William Jackson Hooker. The illustrations are drawn from herbarium specimens of Hooker's herbarium, and subsequently the herbarium of Kew Gardens. W. Hooker was the author of the first ten volumes, produced 1837--1854, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, was responsible for Volumes X-XIX (most of Series III). Daniel Oliver was the editor of Volumes XX-XXIV: he was succeeded by William Turner Thiselton-Dyer. The series continued and now extends to forty volumes.
3. Possibly Nathaniel Cantley (18??--????), who was trained at Kew, was appointed in 1880 as Superintendent of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. An avid botanist, Cantley placed the Gardens on a firm systematic footing and made an extensive collection of herbarium specimens from Singapore and the region.
4. Edwards, S., Lindley, J. & Ridgway, J. (1829--1847). Edwards's Botanical Register, or ornamental flower garden and shrubbery. London: James Ridgway.
5. Hooker, J.D., assisted by various botanists. (1875--1897). The flora of British India. London: Reeve. 6. The sentence beginning "The stelids[?]" has been inserted afterwards, and continues vertically up the right margin. Most of this margin is partially obscured by a strip of thin membrane, making the words hard to distinguish.
7. Possibly John Gilbert Baker (1834--1942). English botanist, started work at Kew in 1866 as an assistant in the Herbarium and progressed through the ranks to become principal assistant to the Keeper in 1884, finally becoming Keeper in 1890. Baker contributed substantially to the colonial floras prepared at Kew during his quarter of a century in the herbarium. Flora of Mauritius and Seychelles (1877) was entirely his own work; so, too, was volume 6 of the Flora Capensis (1896–7); he described species in the Flora of British India and Flora of Tropical Africa, and he is thought to have written about 400 papers appearing in botanical journals of the time.

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