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To Hyacinth Hooker   21 June [1878?]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

June 21st

My dear Lady Hooker

The Bananas have arrived in excellent condition, & I never tasted such exquisite ones.—2 I stick to my dogma that they are the best of fruit. It is extremely kind of you to remember my passion.

I hope that Sir Joseph stands all his work & worry; & I shall rejoice when the R.S. is off his shoulders.

Pray believe me | Yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The year is conjectured from the fact that Joseph Dalton Hooker’s presidency of the Royal Society of London ended in November 1878. Hooker stood down as president on 30 November 1878; see Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 28 (1878–9): 63 and 69. Hyacinth married J. D. Hooker in 1876.
2
The Darwins occasionally received presents of bananas from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; see, for example, Correspondence vol. 25, letter to Hyacinth Hooker, [18 November 1877].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11561F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11561F