Cannot help with correspondent’s study. CD has a poor ear for music. Recommends Helmholtz’s work.
Instructs FD to plant some Oxalis seeds.
Wishes to trace the movement of an old cotyledon. Asks him to examine and compare the pulvinus of a species which moves its cotyledon greatly with one of a species that moves it only moderately.
Are the tendrils ready for heliotropic experiment yet?
No summary available.
Gives results of recently completed survey of islands in the Seychelle group mentioned in Coral reefs, 2d ed., pp. 243–4.
CD cannot say he cares greatly about his election to the Institut but he does care for the sympathy of his friends.
Will look to Smilax when he returns to Down.
Regrets the insecurity of the identification of fossil leaves.
He has heard that De Bary has cultivated Utricularia with and without aquatic animals and that the plants that have been fed flourished "in a stupendous manner".
Climbing plants.
Requests seeds of Echinocystis lobata for Hugo de Vries.
CD made an honorary member of the Royal Society for Medical and Natural Sciences of Brussels.
It would be false to pretend he cares very much about his election to the Institut.
Glad to hear GdeS plans to publish a work on the more ancient fossil plants. Hopes he will report also on the more recent Tertiary forms because the close gradation of such forms is "a fact of paramount importance for the principle of evolution".
Enjoyed seeing HdeV yesterday.
Following the point mentioned by HdeV, CD has observed the difference in corrugation of primary roots in plants exposed to dry and damp soil.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Sends a copy of a letter from Herbert Blakeway of Illinois, which accompanied a pig’s head with wattles.
Discusses the Castle Martin breed of Bos, the history of which shows parallels with the Himalayan rabbits.
JDH writes about the very bad health of [John] Smith, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, whose doctors, Paget & Walshe, say he has a heart condition. Attacks of the illness often render Smith completely immobile, he has palpitations & severe pain. JDH goes on to give his own medical opinion that Smith has worsening heart disease but for Smith's state of mind it would be better not to have it officially diagnosed. JDH has not seen much of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [48th meeting, Dublin, Ireland]. However, he has sent Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer[WTTD] [William] Spottiswoode's address & [William Henry] Flower's paper on the Linnaean classification of mammals. JDH did not hear [Thomas Henry] Huxley's address as he spent the day with [Alexander] Moore, the Gardener at Glasnevin; where JDH admired the collection of tree ferns & the conifers. JDH has met Suringar & the man WTTD corresponds with about Sinapis glauca. [Alexander] Dickson, [John Hutton?] Balfour & [James] Britten all refused botanical visitors. JDH will take Flower's place at the Botany & Zoology section. Tickets to lectures at the Royal Dublin Society wer sold out to townspeople before any of the delegates arrived. The geologists' section has been quarrelling & 'set upon [William] Pengelly'. An afternoon given by the Lord Lieutenant, John Spencer-Churchill, at Vice Regal Lodge was ruined by bad weather. [John] Sadler has not turned up. JDH criticises the House of Commons office for printing the [Annual RBG Kew?] Report from an uncorrected copy. JDH has asked his son Charles Paget Hooker to visit his Aunt, & will probably send him to Edinburgh. JDH intends to go next to Killarney.
JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer about his travels in Ireland [with his wife Lady Hyacinth Hooker]. They have travelled from Dublin to Muckross in Killarney & seen the Torc Cascade with Suringar & a geologist, as well as the Gap of Dunloe & the lakes. From Muckross they went to Queenstown, Cork where they have met with [William Edward] Gumbleton & the Bagwells. JDH describes these people & their fine gardens, he particularly mentions the Fuchsias & Escallonias. At Cork JDH also met with Brady, who went to Morocco, [Archibald] Liversidege Professor of Geology at Sydney New South Wales, & the Miss Townsends with their uncle. JDH plans to see more gardens around Cork before returning to Dublin to see Glassnevin & Powerscourt & travelling on to Pendock.
Instructions to sow some seeds
and suggestions for experiment on effects of removal of bloom.
Likes Hugo de Vries very much; has hardly ever seen so modest a man.
He and Emma rejoice that GHD’s mathematical troubles are at an end. It is miraculous that he unconsciously followed the right course – like composing a sonata by a fluke.
Crossing experiments with common and Chinese geese. Offers CD geese if he wishes to repeat experiments.
Is glad WO is undertaking the editing of Anton Kerner’s book [Schutzmittel der Blüthen gegen unberufene Gäste (1876)], which appears to open out "highly original & curious fields of research". [Used as prefatory letter to Kerner, Flowers and their unbidden guests, The translation revised and edited by W. Ogle (1878).]
GJR’s speech at Dublin [BAAS meeting] was an enormous success, with tremendous applause at mention of CD’s name at the finale.
Contraction of plant roots.