To J. D. Hooker   3 March [1877]¹

My dear old Friend

How kind it was of you to write.— Your note has pleased us beyond measure.² I did not know how Frank would succeed in explaining himself; nor could I gather from his own account how far he had succeeded.³ So your note was most welcome. It has done him good & his manner since has been more completely than hitherto like his old manner.— But poor dear fellow no doubt it constantly crosses his mind that he has no sympathy when it w^d have given him most joy.—⁴

The filaments from Dipsacus will have to be examined by other good workers; but I do not think that anyone c^d see their spontaneous action & that under the most diversified stimulants or reagents, & doubt that they were formed of living matter.

Dyer’s objection in a note to F^r. today is the best, viz that protoplasm c^d not pass through a cell-wall; but white blood corpuscles pass through the walls of vessels; & in a growing cell there must be protoplasm between the molecules of cellulose.—⁵

I have been working at the rich treasure of specimens & information which all you good botanists at Kew gave F. for me.—⁶

I received Moseley’s splendid collection of Photo’s all safe: it did not occur to me, but I ought to have acknowledged them.⁷

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin