Ɛpsilon

To the Darwin children   20 December 1881

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

December 20th 1881

To my Executors & other children.

I have promised to Sir J. Hooker to pay about £250 annually for 4 or 5 years, for the formation of a perfect M. S. catalogue of all known plants; & in the case of my death before the completion of the work, I desire that my children may combine & arrange for the annual payment of the above sum, & I have full confidence that this my desire will be faithfully carried out.1

Charles Darwin

1
See letter from J. D. Hooker, 17 December 1881 and n. 1. The first four parts (comprising two volumes) of the work, Index Kewensis, were compiled at CD’s expense; they took far longer than expected and were published between 1893 and 1895 (Meikle 1971, pp. 295–6). Numerous supplements have subsequently been added.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 £250] ‘£’ above ‘250’
1.4 annual] above del interl ‘anual’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13570,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13570