Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC767
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
HNR/2/1/3 f.104-105
Ridley, Henry Nicholas
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
10-5-1891
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to H. N. Ridley
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
6 page letter over 2 folios
 
Transcript

Yes, Sarcantheae[?] is a most difficult section[?] & I tremble for the results of my analyses. They cost me immense labour & I think there is still confusion, amongst the Cleisostomas especially -- Sarcantheae[?] & Saccolabium should be reunited -- as to Cleisostoma I wait for better observations on the callus or scab below the column within the lip.
Neottiae I found more difficult still, from the obscurity of the stigmas & its columnar appendages often[?] dying[?].
I am indeed glad that you can keep a good artist. It would be an immense boon if he could rapidly sketch in pencil Pandani[???], Palma[?] & Musae[?]. Nature artists spend far too much time in [1 struck through word, illeg.] finishing up & colouring far more than is needful for botanical purposes.
Perhaps this remark may apply occasionally to describers!
V[er]y sinc[erel]y y[ou]r | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]

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The Camp
Sunningdale
May 10/[18]91
Dear Mr Ridley*1 I feel that I have been very remiss in not writing & thanking you for your letters & for the beautiful Drawing of Sarcochilus notabilis -- which however has startled me by having a solitary peduncle! for[?] the specimen you sent has the remarkable character of 3 or more from the same point[?] of the stem[?] & I hastily assumed that this was normal.
I haved been waiting for the appearance arrival of the two papers you announced to me as having been sent to the Linnaean, & which have quite recently been

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referred to me. & I have recommended the first; that on Bromheadias for printing in the Journal. As to the latter, the two plants are most remarkable especially the terrestrial, but I am far[?] not so sure but that the other Glossorhyncha may be a species of Ceratostylis, so that I think it best before establishing a new genus of orchid, in the absence of pollen [1 word illeg] that it should be returned to you for reconsideration. See P.S.*2 It is quite unlike any Ceratostylis known to me, but then the species of this genus are totally unlike one another! & the small lip is very characteristic of the genus. I have made a such[?] blunder myself, from describing as "Eria pygmaea p. 804, a true Ceratostylis, of which I had only mutilated specimen. It altogether

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resembles E. Pleurothallis & the column of the first specimens I had being in very bad state I did not hesitate to place it next that plant; better specimens from King*3 show it to be a true Ceratostylis quite unlike any other & I have just figured it in[?] the "Icones" as Ce. eriaeoides.
The new Bromheadia is a very remarkable one, we had a specimen without flower from Maingay*4 & I had put it into Bromheadia. The only objection to that paper is its quite needless length & detail with repetitions. The Linnaean would wish it cut down, but that I could not manage, & so I recommended its being printed at length with the drawings. -- But do pray remember that "brevity is the soul of wit" -- & printing expensive[?] I am glad that you added a fresh[?]

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description[?] of the curious little B. aporoides which I thought might be a different genus.
Your new genus Leucolena is a very singular one -- but may it not bear leaves? The tubers are hardly those of a leafless saprophyte.
I do not envy you the preparation of a list of native Malay names, but it is very necessary. Of one thing you may make absolutely certain; & that is, that no two philologists will agree with to your spelling! I should like to see how 3 separate educated Malays would [1 struck through word, illeg] write "Heart's Ease" -- either by English or Malay letters. -- or in fact how would 3 educated Englishmen who had never seen the word in writing?
Yet these native lists have their uses & the other day I spotted a hitherto dubious genus of Gardner's[?]*5 by the Cingalese[?] [Sinhalese] name which he gave it.

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Yes, Sarcantheae[?] is a most difficult section[?] & I tremble for the results of my analyses. They cost me immense labour & I think there is still confusion, amongst the Cleisostomas especially -- Sarcantheae[?] & Saccolabium should be reunited -- as to Cleisostoma I wait for better observations on the callus or scab below the column within the lip.
Neottiae I found more difficult still, from the obscurity of the stigmas & its columnar appendages often[?] dying[?].
I am indeed glad that you can keep a good artist. It would be an immense boon if he could rapidly sketch in pencil Pandani[???], Palma[?] & Musae[?]. Nature artists spend far too much time in [1 struck through word, illeg.] finishing up & colouring far more than is needful for botanical purposes.
Perhaps this remark may apply occasionally to describers!
V[er]y sinc[erel]y y[ou]r | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]

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Have you ever seen Musa textilis in flower? I mean the Manilla [sic] Hemp plants.
P.S. A further examination of Glossorhyncha inclines me to let it stand & recommend it for publication -- The absence of mentum, or sac or spur to the lip, the absence of lax[?] sheaths (so characteristic in Ceratostylis) & the rostellum are all extant[?] the latter genus. It is probably Vandeae --

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. "See P.S." is written vertically up the left margin.
3. Possibly Sir George King (1840--1909). Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta and Cinchona cultivation in Bengal, 1871--1898. First Director of the Botanical Survey of India, 1890--1898. King was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1901. He was recognized for his work in the cultivation of cinchona and for setting up a system for the inexpensive distribution of quinine throughout India through the postal system. 4. Possibly Alexander Carroll Maingay (1836 --1869). British botanist, and surgeon in the Indian Army who collected plants in Burma and Penang. His botanical collections were acquired for Kew, including many plants new to science.
5. Possibly George Gardner (1812--1849). Scottish botanist and traveller. His teacher in Glasgow W.J. Hooker assisted him to undertake botanical travels in Brazil during 1836-41, from where he sent home many thousands of specimens. In 1846 he was appointed superintendent of the botanical garden at Perideniya, Ceylon.

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