JDH has not replied to Asa Gray's letters earlier as he has been busy with Linnean & Royal Society business & there has been illness in the family, including whooping cough & measles. Mentions his 'presidential Soiree', which was very well attended, including by Charles Darwin. Also mentions selecting new candidates for the Royal Society. Explains his reasons for declining further offers of knighthood, at this point he feels he can only accept an offer of K.C.B. [Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath] as recognition of his Presidency of the Royal Society. Has received Paris Lambertii[sic] & Abies Alba & hopes Gray has got the Thistles. Comments that one Miss Kingsley is very engaging, that his sister Bessy [Elizabeth] is melancholic, that he likes one Mr Eliott, & asks about Gray's duties as a member of the Smithsonian Institution Board. Discusses George Bentham distancing himself from the Linnean Society & its resultant decline. [George] Allman will be the next President of the Linnean Society. JDH describes his busy schedule on Royal Society Council meeting days. Whilst he is away [Sir Richard] Strachey & [Sir Andrew Crombie] Ramsay will take the Chair. Thanks Gray for a postal order & apologises for not thanking Ross for some apples. Mentions Mrs Gray's fall & recovery. Tyndale wants JDH to take Presidency of the British Association at Belfast, his inaugural address will be on insectivorous plants: the effect of Carbonate of Ammonia on Nepenthes, specifically on glands in the pitcher. Promises to send Gray 'the Wedgewood medallion'. Explains that a Miss James referred to a portrait of Linnaeus but it was not by Flaxman who worked very little for Wedgewood.
Encloses letter and sketch from O. N. Rood on pointed ears.
Reports observations on Sarracenia variolaris. A correspondent finds that the fluid in the pitchers is anaesthetic and that a sweet trail runs down the plant, nearly to the ground, to lure up ants.
Encloses two articles on insectivorous plants [Nation 18 (1874): 216–17, 232–4].
CD is deeply pleased by AG’s article on him in Nature [10 (1874): 79–81].
Is preparing book on "Drosera and Co." for the printers. Reports observations on digestion in Drosera and Pinguicula.
Profoundly grateful for AG’s article in Nature; he is especially pleased by what AG says about teleology.
AG’s article in Nature was "just and moderate".
Sends his review of C. Hodge’s What is Darwinism? (1874) [Nation 18 (1874): 348–51].
It is uphill work making a theist out of CD.
Gives further observations on Sarracenia variolaris.
Writes of his article in Nature. Corrects some errors that have appeared in the published version.
Remarks on his work on Pinguicula. Notes its digestive power; it absorbs nutritious matter from leaves and seeds as well as insects.
Thanks for Sarracenia, which is as wonderful as any orchid.
Asks AG to observe Pinguicula.
Has read AG’s semi-theological review [Nation 18 (1874): 348–51] with interest
and has obtained the book [C. Hodge, What is Darwinism? (1874)].
JDH explains he has not written to Asa Gray recently because he is particularly busy during the absence of his aide, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, who is at South Kensington. JDH is working on a botanical primer for the Macmillan series & doing experiments for himself & Charles Darwin on insectivorous or carnivorous plants: Cephalotes, Nepenthes & Sarracenia. Has neglected work on GENERA PLANTARUM. Has had difficulty getting good systematic contributions for the FLORA INDICA, Thiselton-Dyer & Hiern did good work but Edgeworth, Masters, Andrews & Lawson all needed a lot of correction. Tells Gray about his trip to Florence, Italy for a Congress, run badly by Filippo Parlatore who JDH calls a Tragopogon [also known as 'goatsbeard'] & a 'little toad'. During the trip he saw the Miss Horners, Bakle & his wife, & Mrs Harvey. He also went to Paris, Nimes, Montpelier, Antibes, Hanbury's brother's place near Montara, Genoa, Spezzie [La Spezia] & Pisa & returned via Venice, the Brenner [Pass] Munich & Paris. [Letter appears incomplete. It bears no signature but is written in the hand of Joseph Dalton Hooker.]
No summary available.
JDH thanks Asa Gray for his letter of 27 Aug. Mentions spiral vessels. Comments on English knowledge of foreign developments, comparing his systematic botany to the German way. Will be glad of a copy of Valron's[?] Index. Has received the Thistles & Torrey's sheets by Dix. Praises Belfast meeting, particularly lectures by [Thomas Henry] Huxley & [John] Lubbock. Apologises that Farlow's paper was not acknowledged. JDH is sending Gray a copy of his Belfast address, it will be published in THE PROCEEDINGS. Notices of Edwards' observations have been omitted in CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, JDH implies because of a quarrel. JDH has stayed out of the Linnean Society row but is embroiled in conflict with [William] Carruthers who has complained to the Admiralty, in the name of the British Museum Trustees & through the Librarian Mr Winter Jones, that JDH has not been sharing botanical collections. Including unfounded appeals about the Welwitch collection, collections made by [William] Purdie & [Charles] Wilford, & JDH's own Antarctica collections; which were shared with Captain [James Clark] Ross. It is part of the campaign by Carruthers & [Richard] Owen to undermine JDH's position as a British Museum Trustee. Haveley[?] has also been drawn into the dispute. The illiberal museum policy is the real reason none of the Public Offices send specimens there. 'Old Gray' [John Edward Gray] will retire & be replaced by Gunther but Owen will not go until he has moved the [natural history] collection to the new building [Natural History Museum]. The natural history trusteeship, comprised of JDH, Duke of Devonshire, Duke of Argyll, Viscount Eversley, Sir P. Egerton, Sir G. Burrows is ignored. Thanks Gray for Fremontia seed, shared with [Gustave Adolphe] Thuret & [Thomas] Hanbury. He will continue to send seed to Bolander through the Smithsonian. Advises that Baker will send Refugia[?] & JDH will pay Leeman. Asks what lower Cryptogams of Wilkes' voyage have been published.
No summary available.
Cannot help with Pinguicula or Utricularia. Mrs Mary Treat is studying Utricularia.
Forwards his short piece on duration of varieties [New York Tribune 8 Dec 1874; Am. J. Sci. 3d ser. 9 (1875): 109–14].
Read AG’s article [see 9753] on longevity and duration of varieties with great interest.
Death of Mrs Hooker.
Hopes Insectivorous plants will be out in the spring.
JDH is behind with correspondence as usual, he has been promised some assistance by the Treasury. He thanks Asa Gray for delicate notice of JDH's wife. States Romneya seeds are acceptable. Describes the recent poor health of [Charles] Lyell, including epileptic fits. Mentions books for the Linnean & Horticultural Societies. Sargent has written & JDH has received his trees. Expresses how touched he is by Mrs Gray's letter to his sister. Notes Sechium is: 'all right'. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers is on the agenda for the next Library[?] meeting. From what Henry has written JDH is not clear whether the collections of [William] Jameson were bought or lent. Jameson died on the road from Guayaquil to Quito, he was over 80 & did not have sufficient money or food for the trip. Jameson's family did not support his botanising, he had family in Quito & Dundee & his representative is probably a son who was living in Chile. JDH asks that this letter be forwarded to Miss Grace Ellis, a friend of Tyndale. Tyndale has sent JDH some "wood-hangings".
Asks AG to forward [unspecified] enclosure to Chauncey Wright.
JDH informs Asa Gray that he is very busy & feeling the weight of his responsibilities. Hs main concern is [his daughter] Harriet Hooker's health. She will be sent to the South of France, probably to stay with friends in Cannes, later JDH will join her & they will travel to Algiers to visit Colonel Playfair. JDH & Playfair will make a tour of Algiers from April to May [1875]. JDH's Aunt, Mrs Dawson Turner of Liverpool, will keep the house whilst JDH is away. Her children have been guests of JDH as they have no house, their father Dawson William Turner is in confinement but will soon be out & JDH hopes to send him on a long voyage 'to secure his health'. JDH has found that Elliottia is synonymous with Tripetaleia of Japan. He continues to work on GENERA PLANTARUM, currently struggling with Sapotaceae. Mentions that Miguel has made omissions of [Richard] Spruce & [George] Gardner in the FLORA BRASILIENSIS. Asks Gray for specimens of Shortia, he has kept it distinct from Schizocodon following [Carl Johann] Maximovicz, whose work he admires. By contrast he does not like the way Baillon works.
JDH has received Asa Gray's letter of 12 Feb [1875]. He reports that his great friend [Sir Charles] Lyell is dead. JDH got up a petition for Lyell's burial in Westminster Abbey, signed by fellows of the Royal, Linnean & Geological Societies, & Stanley has as good as offered this honour. Lyell's brother died 3 weeks earlier. Mentions Gray's rheumatism. Dismisses Mrs Sullivant & advises Gray to do the same. Gray's request for catalogues of scientific papers has not yet come before the Royal Society Library Committee. JDH is sending Gray's herbarium [Harvard University Herbarium] a copy as a gift from himself, the cost will be more than covered by the sale of Gay's duplicate specimens so he will also send the SYNOPSIS FILICUM & Plate III of FLORA OF BRITISH INDIA. Accepts Gray's offer of Jamaican plants, though he cannot be certain they are new. [George] Bentham seems well but is plagued by sudden attacks of diarrhoea. In an additional annotation JDH mentions the [William] Carruthers affair & that: 'Nathaniel Lindley is Counsel for the King'.
Wants seeds of Nesaea verticillata for crossing experiments to see whether seedlings from "illegitimate unions" are sterile like true hybrids.
No summary available.