Ɛpsilon

From J. D. Hooker   7 September 1881

Royal Gardens Kew

Septr. 7/81.

Dear Darwin

Can you kindly get me some more tubers of Herminium, for the Comte de Paris, who grows Orchids (terrestrial) marvellously—1 He tells me that Ophrys bombylifera is the only species of the genus that increases with him: (we find Herminium to increase with us) all the rest & most other species gradually die out— He is a perfect enthusiast, collects wherever he goes, & he tells me that he has at Chateau d’Eu 10,000 plants in flower in May (of terrestrial Orchids—) he has not Herminium at all!—2

The tubers you sent me 2 years ago have increased well, & form a beautiful patch, but I do not like to disturb it— The count tells me that he has found Herminium but so rare that he refrained from disturbing it & so has it not in his garden & as he has sent me 100 tubers of Ophrys bombylifera I should like in return to send him some Herminium from you, who he admires hugely.

Your criticism anent Southern glacial Epoch is just— my lone statement was due to hasty condensation of matter.3 What I should have said, and did originally in MS was,—that from the appearance of Antarctic plants on mountains north of their home,—a glacial period might be inferred, as proved on astronomical & geological grounds or something to that effect.

I have heard that Skertchly is a loose observer, but I should much like to know what he has written on peat bogs—though I am so overwhelmed with work that I doubt if I could read it.4

Yes I do hope to live to work out the relations of the southern Temperate floras—5 I do wish I could throw off my official duties here; I am getting so weary of them; & Dyer does them so well; but I could not nearly afford it yet6

There is a tremendously interesting point to be worked out in Azores, viz—huge trunks of Cypresses are found there buried in the ground, yet the Cypress is extinct in the Island.— there must be other preserved plants where these trunks are found. Whether or no, the history of these trunks wants clearing up.7

I shall be very glad to see the mountain plants & name them for your friend— I think 3500 is the greatest Azorean altitude.8

Lubbock did capitally well at the Association.9

Ever yrs | J D Hooker

Dyer & Smith have both just started for their holidays.10

1
Louis-Philippe-Albert d’Orléans, comte de Paris, cultivated orchids from around the world; a report on his temperate collection was published in 1876 (Germain de St-Pierre 1876). The orchid genus Herminium is widespread across Europe and Asia, but Hooker probably refers to the minute Herminium monorchis (musk orchid) that CD had found growing on ‘Orchis Bank’ (the Darwin family name for Downe Bank; LL 1: 116). This orchid is rare in Britain. CD described its unique manner of fertilisation in ‘Fertilization of orchids’, pp. 145–6, basing his account on George Howard Darwin’s observations, which are in DAR 70: 32–6.
2
Ophrys bombylifera (a synonym of Ophrys bombyliflora) is the bumblebee orchid. The comte de Paris’s residence was the Chateau d’Eu, near Dieppe.
4
CD had suggested that Hooker look at Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly’s work on peat bogs and climate (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 and 4 September [1881] and n. 2).
6
Hooker was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; William Turner Thiselton-Dyer, Hooker’s son-in-law, was the assistant director.
7
For a discussion of the palaeobotany of the Azores, see Góis Marques and Menezes de Sequeira 2015.
8
CD had asked whether Hooker wanted Francisco de Arruda Furtado’s plant collection from the hills in the Azores (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 and 4 September [1881]).
9
John Lubbock was president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which had met in York from 31 August to 7 September; his address was published in the Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Lubbock 1881a).
10
John Smith was the curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13320,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13320