Asks WJH to thank his son [J. D. Hooker, away on Antarctic survey] for his note. Has also read a letter JDH wrote to Lyell. Hopes JDH will publish a journal. If he publishes an Antarctic flora, CD will place his collection of South American alpine plants at his disposal.

CD sends seeds found by W. Kemp of Galashiels with explanation and request that they be planted and a report sent to him, so that Kemp may publish his discovery if results are interesting.

Apologises that the house is full this weekend, but next weekend would be good.

Will be pleased to provide a testimonial for J. D. Hooker, who is seeking the Chair in Botany at Edinburgh, but fears he himself is so little known that it could only be of the smallest service. Has asked Lyell to write to J. F. W. Herschel giving an opinion of J. D. Hooker.

A letter in support of J. D. Hooker as a candidate for Edinburgh Chair in Botany. No one better qualified. Wishes him success.

CD sends a copy [of South America] to Gardeners’ Chronicle and refers to a passage on Patagonian salt; asks for backing and specific information supplementing his suggestion that an added chloride would increase the salt’s preserving power.

Thanks WJH for information on J. D. Hooker’s progress.

J. D. Hooker promised a copy of his Galapagos paper. Can WJH forward one to the Athenaeum?

Though correspondence has never ebbed so low, CD is constantly in his thoughts.

Observations on cheetahs used as domesticated hunting animals.

Finds geographical barriers sometimes separate species, but also finds species that remain separate where there are no barriers to migration.

Colour "individuates" isolated animal species.

Plains and alpine animal distribution show altitude not strictly analogous to latitude.

Impact of timber cutting on climate has led to extinction of crocodiles.

Will discuss coal formation in letter to Edward Forbes.

CD often asked whether isolated mountains in southern latitudes had closely allied representatives of Arctic and north temperate plants; JDH has found a representative barberry.

Making for Darjeeling via Calcutta.

Brian Hodgson reading CD’s Journal of researches with delight.

Forwarding breeding pamphlets.

JDH recommends P. S. Pallas on degeneration.

CD’s facts on sex in barnacles startling.

Hugh Falconer’s health.

Hugh Falconer’s misbehaviour.

Waiting out rains at Brian Hodgson’s.

Will make botanical transverse section of Himalayas from plains to snow.

Arrangements to pass Sikkim Rajah’s territory.

No evidence of glacial or diluvial action in sub-Himalayan mountains. No evidence of detrital coal formation.

Hodgson’s replies to CD on introduced species and hybrids.

Physical description of Sikkim mountains.

Travelling through Kinchin snows.

Transported boulders.

Continues prior letter of this date. Has received CD’s [1202]. Thanks CD for saving his correspondence.

Sent "a yarn about species" in October mail.

Some "puerile" JDH letters printed in Athenæum.

Requests CD extract anything valuable from his letters to CD and Lyell for Athenæum.

CD’s complemental males in barnacles wonderful.

Warns CD to drop his battle about perpetuity of names in species descriptions.

Pleasure at receiving CD’s scientific letters to JDH and Hodgson.

The H. Wedgwoods’ pecuniary loss.

Condolences at CD’s father’s death.

Rajah harasses JDH’s work. Lack of supplies, rain, malarial valleys, and landslips make going difficult. Cannot get into Tibet.

"Twenty species [of plants] here [Camp Sikkim] to one there [Tierra del Fuego?] always are asking me the vexed question, ""where do we come from?""."

From observation of terraces descending to steppes and plains of India, he thinks that the Himalayas were once a grand fiord coast.

Has information CD requested on Yangsma valley. JDH’s detailed hypothesis of origin of dam there. Does not agree with CD’s interpretation.

CD partly right. JDH was calling "stratification" what CD calls "foliation". Answers CD’s question on cleavage foliation in Himalayas. Glacial action.

Charmed by CD’s Admiralty instructions on geology [in Manual of scientific enquiry (1849), Collected papers 1: 227–50], but complains he does not give prices of books and instruments he recommends.

No summary available.

JDH sends this letter accompanying some specimens [not present] for his father, William Jackson Hooker. He discusses his monograph of Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania] plants, it is a revision of WJH's papers in the BOTANICAL JOURNAL & CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE[?] & needs the addition of Malvaceous plants from ICONES PLANTARUM & Brown's genus Stenopetalum from De Candolle. It is to be printed in the ANNALS & Mr Taylor will send copies for Sir John Franklin, Captain [James Clark] Ross etc. JDH expects the expedition to leave VDL for the ice in Oct 1840. Discusses the need to revise his description for the ICONES PLANTARUM. JDH's collection may be extensive enough to warrant adding new VDL genera to future volumes of the FLORA BOREALI AMERICANA. JDH is now considered the naturalist to the expedition though his nominal rank is as a medical officer [assistant surgeon].

JDH informs his father, William Jackson Hooker, of the progress of the expedition via Madeira & Tenerife. Describes brief trip ashore at Santa Cruz & character & vegetation of the different islands of Cape Verde: wooded St Antaois, salt plain Sal & volcanic St. Jago. Collected at Porto Praya on St Jago, has wanted to visit the island since reading Christian Smith's account & recommended Lippold go, suggests how other botanists should collect there from a base in St Domingo. Saw the rocks of St Paul from the ship & his ship mates brought him a specimen of seaweed. On the coast are birds such as boobies & noddies. A Grapsus crab that steals their eggs. Considered going across the Atlantic to Pernambuco, Brazil, where JDH could have seen Adamson, Gardner & Louder. Instead they travelled via Trinidad, JDH describes the appearance of the island & the sparse vegetation, all the trees appeared to have been destroyed by the introduction of goats, there was only grass, tufts of Cyperus & a tree fern. Describes the voyage to St Helena, which was slowed down by the inferior sister ship HMS 'Terror'. JDH spent the time working on his plants in Captain Ross' cabin, drawing sea animals; crustacea & mollusca brought up in the towing nets, & taking meteorological readings. At St Helena he gave Harvey's letter to Chief Justice Wilde who has a house on Diana's Peak, the only place Dicksonia arborea grows & he has a new Brazil Araucaria in his garden. Describes the island & vegetation: it is largely barren but there are Scotch firs, a cabbage tree, Furze, 2 Rubus[?], introduced blackberry, native raspberry, a Ruellia, barren mosses, a Scotheimia, ferns & a tree fern. JDH is disappointed with his plant collection but has done all he can, there are sets for WJH, the Admiralty, Ross & Wilmot. JDH is also keeping a journal & sketchbook. McCormick has made a geological collection for Dr Fritton. JDH is reluctant to send specimens to the Royal Society Commission on Botany. Discusses his future career as a botanist & the pros & cons of naval service for a naturalist. The thought that no other botanist will go where he has on the expedition is appealing. Also includes two enclosures: some lengthy descriptions of excursions to: the Curral in Madeira, Tenerife, Porto Praya, St Jago & St Domingo valley in the Cape Verde Islands & some journal extracts dating from Dec 1839 & Feb 1840.

Since he last wrote to his father, William Jackson Hooker, JDH has botanised at St Helena, most notable for cryptogams. JDH learnt about the island flora from Chief Justice Wilde & the Military Chaplain Mr Helps, who assisted Tournaut[?] of Dr Thomson's lab. JDH could not find Beatsonia or Mikania. He collected Commidendrum, Melanodendron & Lachanodes. Other noteworthy collections include Trimiris, Roellas & ferns. JDH dries his plant on HMS 'Erebus' by hanging them outside, some have suffered in extreme weather & the conditions of the tropics. His main collecting tools are a leather portfolio & vasculum. Using a microscope JDH draws marine animals, some of which are luminous; mostly Entomostraceous Crustacea, Pyrosoma & Sertulariae. Blainville's ACTINOLOGIE & Edwards' CRUSTACEA are his references for this work. Approaching the Cape of Good Hope JDH first saw floating seaweeds, a submarine forest with an ecosystem of fish, parasites, corals, shells, crustaceans, molluscs, worms, actinia [anemones] etc. He describes the main seaweed, a Laminaria. JDH & Captain Ross work on the marine specimens whilst McCormick is only interested in ornithology & geology so JDH is effectively the voyage naturalist. JDH describes the excitement of every new landfall. He discusses what he will include in his Antarctic Flora. Next the expedition goes to Crozet, Prince Edward Island, Kerguelen's Land, Islands of St. Paul & Amsterdam, New Zealand, then the ice of Antarctica. The artillery officer, Wilmot, will be staying at the Cape. His brother Augustine Wilmot is a medical student at Edinburgh, his father MP for Warwickshire. The HMS 'Terror's' artillery officer, Mr LeFroy, stayed at St Helena. JDH asks for some natural history books & about joining the Linnean Society. He discusses sending specimens home, all should go to the Admiralty. Suggests WJH could exchange plants with Wilde. JDH has received no letters at Simons Bay, the Cape. He will write to his sisters at Camden House.

JDH apologises for not writing to his grandfather, Joseph Hooker senior, from St Helena. He describes the hierarchy & his daily routine on the ship [HMS 'Erebus']. After breakfast he tends to the sick then takes meteorological observation for the Captain [James Clark Ross] & studies German. After the midday meal he checks the towing nets & after dinner draws & describes specimens & writes his journal & notes. JDH takes the dew point every day. At sea they communicate with sister ship HMS 'Terror' once a month in person & the ships exchange information on their position regularly by signal. A recent dredging near the shore gathered 30 different species of marine animals: corals, shrimp, crab, worms & sponges but no sea weed or submarine vegetation. The Captain sounds every day with a whale line & takes readings from the water at different depths using various instruments incl. a Massey's log. The deepest they have reached is 2477 fathoms & often the sea is too deep to reach the bottom. Sounding at 500 fathoms requires all the men to haul the line back in, a fiddler plays for encouragement - often Rob Roy. JDH tells his grandfather of the hospitality of the Muir family & an invitation from Andrew Johnson to his house, the 'Palle', near Funchal, Madeira. Discusses the diminishing provisions on the long cruise between St Helena & the Cape de Verde & the rations allowed to each man incl. a 'gill of grog' & lemon juice to prevent scurvy. The captain arranged a Christmas dinner & New Year's party. On Sundays there is a church service on the lower deck. The artillery officer, Wilmot, left to take charge of the Cape Observatory & some passengers have also disembarked leaving more room for the naturalists to work. JDH describes how he maintains & stores his plant specimen collection. JDH heard about the deaths of Allan Cunningham & Duke of Bedford from Mr Bowie of the Ludwigsburgh Garden. JDH asks for books in German to be sent to him at Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania].

No summary available.