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Recounts the experiments on Fechner’s law he has found in Helmholz; they are on the smallest perceptible differences of illumination. Describes how to test whether plants’ responses to lights are in accordance with it.
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Thanks for CD’s remarks on and agreement with his paper on history of pollination theories [see 11678].
Will shortly send his essay on the anatomy of nectaries in flowers [see 12300].
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Is writing an article on Epping Forest, wants information on its botany; could Carruthers refer him to accounts of it or lists of its plants esp. trees and bog plants, or to local botanist or anyone who has worked at the Essex flora. Shall be glad of a few lines of testimonial from you [stress on practical experience of planting & made special study of the subject "as I hear that being "scientific" is my greatest danger with the committee!"] PS Asa Gray has just sent ARW his delightful lecture on the Temperate Forests which ARW is going to use largely in his paper. [ARW's article on Epping Forest appeared in the November 1878 issue of the Fortnightly Review].
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Forwards letter from George Callwell reporting what a large and disease-free potato crop JT’s seed yields.
CD is puzzled by VD’s supposed hybrid tomato. If a hybrid, it would have to result from the "direct action of the pollen of a distinct species in the mother plant". CD believes this sort of inheritance occurs in varieties (though some botanists disagree), but not for species. Suggests "bud-variation".
Did cats and dogs become pets because they are scrupulous in the discharge of their faeces? He has a pet parakeet whose behaviour supports this view.
JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer about his time in Paris. He [& his wife Hyacinth Hooker] could not stay at the Hotel de Famille & have been forced to take rooms at an inferior establishment; Hotel l'Amiral. They have been to the Exhibition [Third Paris World's Fair] where JDH admired the Japanese edibles such as Pteris aquilina in syrup, also a collection of bamboos, the Englsih glass & French artificial flowers but he got bored with the amount of porcelain on show. They have also been to Cluny, a prize giving at the Palais d'Industrie & briefly to an overcrowded ball at the 'Ministre of Agriculture & Commerce'. JDH will go to a speech by the exhibition jurors & to see the Prince at the British Embassy. JDH has met with William Munro & together they will go to the Jardin de Plantes to visit Joseph Decaisne. JDH & Hyacinth dine daily with Mr & Mrs Ragnel, Hyacinth's aunt. Due to rain they will not attend the ball at Versailles. JDH approves of the improvements being made in Paris but finds the city very noisy, smelly & poorly designed for pedestrians. The Palais Royal does not have the quality shops it used to, good jewellery especially is now to be found further West. JDH is worrying about his [Royal Society] Address, he asks WTTD to help him by preparing a list of significant scientific developments. In a post script JDH ads that the Duval Bouillons are: 'so full one cannot get near them'.
JDH agrees that he & Sir William Thiselton-Dyer should pay for [John Reader] Jackson's trip to Paris. JDH advises caution in dealing with [Daniel] Oliver, he believes that seclusion has led to Oliver developing 'erroneous views'. Gunther was proposed for a Royal Medal a year earlier than Oliver. The Exhibition [Exposition Universelle, third Paris World's Fair] will close at the end of November but exhibitors can sell off exhibits from the end of October.