Ɛpsilon

From J. D. Hooker   27 October 1881

Royal Gardens Kew

Oct 27/81.

Dear Darwin

The plants go tomorrow—all but the Euphorbiaceae anent which please let us know what sort of plants are wanted— There are no end of them, Herbs, Trees, Shrubs, evergreen, deciduous, succulents & thin leaved1

Dischidia Rafflesiana I have tried for 25 years to get for Kew— We had one little plant a year ago, that had life in it, but the Foreman would pot it on & killed it.2 I have seeds, just sown, but not yet germinated. You know of course Griffiths paper in Trans. Linn. Soc.3

I have long wished to experiment on it, but never shall now— Why should not Frank?— I will try again for young plants from Sincapore. whither we have just sent a good man. The common species, D. Bengalensis, has no pitchers & grows like an ordinary plant.4

I send our only plants of Drosophyllum— we can get others so do not “agitate yourself” about hurting it, & vivisect it at your sweet will.5

We go to Pitt Rivers from Saturday till Tuesday— I hate those big swell houses.6

Dyer returned last week. The Grays left Kew on Saturday & sailed yesterday.7

I have not seen the truculent Wiesner’s book.—8 & have a hopeless pile of literature to glance at on my table. The “intellectual activity” of the age is horrid.

I am finishing up Palmae for Gen. Plant,—the most difficult job I ever undertook—& perhaps the most unsatisfactory9

Ever aff yrs | J D Hooker

1
For the plants requested by CD, see the letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881 enclosure and n. 10.
2
George King had sent CD a specimen of Dischidia rafflesiana from the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta (Kolkata; see letter from George King, 13 September 1881).
3
William Griffith’s paper, ‘On the structure of the ascidia and stomata of Dischidia rafflesiana Wall.’ (Griffith 1846), had been mentioned to CD by Hooker while CD was working on Insectivorous plants (see Correspondence vol. 23, letter from J. D. Hooker, 16 April 1875). Dischidia rafflesiana is a synonym of D. major.
4
There is no evidence that Francis Darwin ever experimented on Dischidia rafflesiana (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881 and n. 7). Dischidia bengalensis, a native of India, has narrow succulent leaves. The plant collector mentioned has not been identified.
5
Drosophyllum is the monotypic genus of Portuguese sundew or dewy pine. CD had asked for a small specimen and mentioned that he could return it (letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 October 1881).
6
Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers had a large estate, Rushmore, in Wiltshire.
7
William Turner Thiselton-Dyer and his wife, Harriet Anne, had gone on a six-week holiday to the continent on 7 September 1881 (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 7 September 1881). Asa and Jane Loring Gray had been visiting the Hookers (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 October 1881] and n. 7).
9
Genera plantarum (Bentham and Hooker 1862–83) was a systematic work undertaken by Hooker and George Bentham in 1860 (see Stearn 1956). Hooker was working on palms (Palmae, a synonym of Arecaceae); see Bentham and Hooker 1862–83, 3 (part II): 870–948.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13435,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13435