From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[after 11 Dec 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 391
Summary:
List of most anomalous Leguminosae [from George Bentham].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[26 Feb 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 100: 86–9
Summary:
Is relieved his book [Himalayan journals] has been well received and glad he has successfully completed it.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[c. 25 Mar 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 382
Summary:
JDH summarises letter from Humboldt.
JDH answers CD’s questions on glacial action in Himalayas.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[24 June 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 104: 202–4
Summary:
Birth of JDH’s second child.
Asks CD’s view of "highness" and "lowness" in animals. Gives his own for plants; extent of deviation from type, e.g., floral parts deviating from leaf.
Reading B. C. Brodie’s Psychological inquiries [1854].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[29 June 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 383
Summary:
JDH on "highness" of Coniferae: they are genuine Dicotyledons, not a link to cryptogams; that is a geologists’ fallacy. Thus they are highest plants in Carboniferous.
Does not agree with CD’s "elastic" species theory. Long correspondence with Lyell on this.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 Aug 1854
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 384
Summary:
JDH and F. W. Binney identify Calamites specimens as pith casts. They are cryptogams related to, but higher than, Lycopodiaceae and contradict progression.
Insects found in coal.
Lyell says Stonesfield slate marsupials are actually placentals.
JDH reading Alexander Braun on individuality ["Das Individuum der Pflanze in seinem Verhältniss zur Species", Abh. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (Phys. Kl.) (1853): 19–122].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[6 Nov 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 385
Summary:
Fossil leaves from Disko Island.
JDH to begin working out the botanical geography of the polar sea.
Has not forgotten CD’s request on aberrant species.
Has taken a house on Richmond Hill.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[15 Nov 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 386
Summary:
George Bentham’s list of aberrant plant genera. JDH appended the number of species in each genus according to E. G. Steudel’s catalogue [Nomenclator botanicus (1840–1)] and according to JDH and Bentham.
JDH speculates on effect of splitting Australia longitudinally on distribution; it becomes an argument for new creations.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
5 Dec [1854]
Source of text:
DAR 205.9: 388–90
Summary:
Bentham’s list of aberrant genera: CD’s worry that he eliminated large genera a priori is half right. He eliminated those large, anomalous genera that virtually constitute natural orders. JDH criticises CD’s tabulations of aberrants.
Difficulty of distinguishing affinity and analogy in plants.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[3 Nov 1854]
Source of text:
DAR 104: 214–15
Summary:
JDH’s contempt for R. I. Murchison.
There is a Cyperus species and a Pteris species endemic to hot volcanoes of Ischia. Why are there no other migrators?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
William Mitten
Date:
8 August 1854
Source of text:
WILLIAM MITTEN LETTERS MIT f.144b, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Professor Charles Cardale Babington
Date:
22 September 1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/1 f.131, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Professor Charles Cardale Babington
Date:
?-?-1854?
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/1 f.132, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
-2?-1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.98-99, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
5 August 1854?
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.100-101, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
1 September 1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.102-103, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
3 September 1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.104, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
20 September 1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.105-106, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
George Bentham
Date:
2?-10-1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/2 f.107-108, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Asa Gray
Date:
26 January 1854
Source of text:
JDH/2/22/1/1 f.2-3, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
JDH thanks Asa Gray for his opinion on an unspecified essay by JDH, letter includes discussion of species & specific centres suggesting the subject of the essay is geographical plant distribution, the definition of a species & whether they are created entities or varieties evolve with environmental influences. JDH refers Gray to his comments in the FLORA ANTARCTICA. He argues against Gray & Agassiz's belief in multiple centres. Discusses the relative importance of genetic resemblance as opposed to habitat, referring to the Dorking Fowl, Manx Cats & Falkland Island rabbits. He favours theories based on observable evidence of geography, physiology etc. Dismisses Agassiz's work, incl on glaciers such as Aletsch, as prejudice not based in fact but on a desire for notoriety. JDH & Lyell like Agassiz personally. JDH looks to Americans for future discoveries in science as he considers them more practical. Bentham has decided to give his herbarium to RBG Kew. Thomas Thomson [TT] wants to be botanist on an expedition to North West Australia, if the East India Company will give him leave. Hurt approves of TT, who was imprisoned with his brother during the Afghanistan campaign. William Jackson Hooker has applied to The Duke of Newcastle on TT's behalf. Writes of progress with FLORA INDICA & distribution of plant sets to Gray, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St Petersburg, Brown at the British Museum, Lowell & Torrey. Asks Gray about North American Larch, Yew, Junipers & Coniferae incl. Scotch Pine. Uses Yews from Pontrilas as an example of the difficulty of using habitat vs character in determining species. The Deodar Avenue at Kew is another example of how plants may not always have the ideal characteristics of their species. Agrees that species cannot be pronounced the same because they are united by certain forms, gives Mt Lebanon & Himalayan Cedars as example of extreme forms. Argues the difficulty is with local botanists wanting to give local varieties a distinct classification.
Contributor:
Hooker Project