Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC1506
MUN/1/127
Munro, General William
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
25 Dec 1862
© The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Letters to General William Munro
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 
Transcript


Dec 25th/[18]62 ROYAL GARDENS KEW

My dear Munro*1
I have sinned & greatly erred, I turned up your letter the other day asking for the case of plants, stowed away with some others most carefully for answering. it appears to have arrived when I was in great hurry preparing to on the eve of leaving home for a few days, & had not been seen or heard of since its arrival. I am extremely sorry for this most culpable oversight, & shall duly make amends.
I have now to thank you for yours of November 3d which is full of interesting matter. I am

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Dec 25th/[18]62 ROYAL GARDENS KEW

My dear Munro*1
I have sinned & greatly erred, I turned up your letter the other day asking for the case of plants, stowed away with some others most carefully for answering. it appears to have arrived when I was in great hurry preparing to on the eve of leaving home for a few days, & had not been seen or heard of since its arrival. I am extremely sorry for this most culpable oversight, & shall duly make amends.
I have now to thank you for yours of November 3d which is full of interesting matter. I am

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extremely glad that you like Genera Plantarum. As to more references to writers & figures -- I think that as to writers we adopted the only plan practicable -- referring to works through which every species hitherto described is referable -- to have done more would have entailed endless difficulties as to selection, & the bibliography of [1 word illeg.] is now inconceivably great -- it would further demand in many genera a criticism of species, which are often referred to wrong[?] genera -- as it is, the limited selection made are very troublesome to verify. All this applies with double force to Plates. -- just fancy [1 word illeg.] all "Pritzels' Icones" or even half of it, & this would be considerably short (by 10 [1 word illeg.]) of the quotations required. Then too every plate must be verified numerically. [1 word illeg.] made the same objection, -- it must succumb to the

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consideration that it would add materially to the expense of the work, more so to the bulk, & most of all to the time & hence cost of production to the authors. No one who has not tried, has any idea what the bibliography & Iconography of many[?] Genera is -- It is material for a separate[sic] work, quite, or for a seperate[sic] supplemental volume. I am so convinced of its impracticability that I feel safe in saying we shall never see a "Gen. Plant." founded on observation, so carried out -- because a very little more such labor[sic] would make it a "Species Plantarum".
My Father & Mother are both remarkably well, the latter walks about pretty well, her general health is robust. My wife is well, very for her. The children are all I could desire. Bentham is busy at Austral. Flora, of which Vol. 1 will soon be in press. He is demolishing species at an awful rate! -- Yea[?] even the estimates of "Gen. Plant." come down. Oliver is working at Loranthaceae & his general & special

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duties. He has been an immense help to me with this wonderful Welwitschia of which I read the account to Linn. Soc. last Thursday & am now busy printing -- We are getting splendid collections from W. Africa, & good ones also from East. (Livingstones expedition but Govt are slow to publish these things, though they go to great expense in having the collections made.
I have no particular news to give of Lindleys, they go on as usual, Thomson has taken a house at Hastings for the winter. I see Peel & [1 word illeg.] occasionally, both well.
With united regards & every compliment of the season.
Ever most truly y[our]s | Jos D Hooker [signature]

ENDNOTES


1. General William Munro

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