Ɛpsilon

To W. J. Hooker   [c. February 1849]1

Down Farnborough Kent

Sunday

Dear Sir William Hooker

I am very much obliged to you for remembering the interest which I always feel in your son’s progress & for forwarding to me Hodgson’s letter, which I now return. I am delighted that everything looks so flourishing.

I am much obliged to your kindness in sending me the pamphlets.—2

Your son promised me a copy of his Galapagos Flora Paper.3 I am really anxious to possess a copy: can you let me have one & at anytime leave or send it to the Athenæum Club: I hope that I am not unreasonable in this request.

Pray be so good as to remember me very kindly to Lady & Miss Hooker & believe me with my best thanks | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
The date is based on J. D. Hooker’s statement that the pamphlets referred to in the letter had been sent from India in October 1848 (see second letter from J. D. Hooker, 3 February 1849). Parcels appear to have taken about six months to reach England, while letters took about two.
3
J. D. Hooker 1845a and 1846b. Hooker had read these two papers on Galápagos flora to the Linnean Society in 1845 and 1846. Although they were not published in the Transactions until 1851, printed texts were available in 1849. CD probably refers to ‘The vegetation of the Galápagos Archipelago’ (J. D. Hooker 1846b). See also letter to J. D. Hooker, 28 March 1849.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1218,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1218