To J. D. Hooker   [28 May 1847]¹

My dear Hooker

I just send one line to say that I have heard here in town that you return tomorrow (Saturday) & therefore that I have missed my lark to Kew.— I trust to your being at Oxford & then we must have some talks. Dropmore must, I suppose pause a bit, for you will hardly be ready to start immediately, & I cannot come all next week—so that I sh^d. think we must defer it I suppose—but I hope it will not die away— What say you on our return from Oxford to leave early on morning & get to London to evening.— Blenheim would make also a fine expedition² But the party is your’s & you must organise it—but this plan of mine seems worth thinking of.— When at leisure, let me hear some news of you.—

By the way, as submarine coal made you so wrath, I thought I w^d. experimentise on Falconer & Bunbury³ together & it made him even more savage “such infernal nonsense ought to be thrashed out of me”— Bunbury was more polite & contemptuous— So I now know how to stir up & show off any Botanist. I wonder whether zoologists & Geologists have got their tender points; I wish I could find out.

Ever yours | C. D.

I sadly regret my loss of my Kew day— I am very glad to hear a better account of Sir William