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To William Jackson Hooker   17 February [1851]

Down Farnborough Kent

Feb. 17th.

My dear Sir William

You will no doubt like to see the enclosed letter of your son,1 which, whenever perfectly convenient you can return to me.— I am heartily glad to think that he will pretty soon now be at home again.2 What work he will have on his hands; it is enough to make one fear to think of it. Everyone will, I suppose, be quite astonished to hear of the Oaks & Birches of the Tropics;3 it strikes me as almost disheartening; almost as bad as if some geologist were to find Tertiary shells in a Silurian formation.— Falconer’s conduct is enough to make one swear at him.4

Pray believe me with my respects & kind remembrances to Lady Hooker: | Your’s very sincerely | C. Darwin

2
Joseph Dalton Hooker had spent three years botanising in India and was at this time on his way back to England. He arrived in England on 25 March, having left Calcutta on 7 February (L. Huxley ed. 1918, 1: 332).
3
Correspondence vol. 4, letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 November 1850. J. D. Hooker had found that oak and birch trees were common in the tropical valleys of India, facts that he considered ‘disturb our preconceived notions of the geographical distribution of the most familiar tribes of plants, and throw great doubt on the conclusions which fossil plants are supposed to indicate.’ (J. D. Hooker 1854, 2: 336 n.).
4
Hugh Falconer, superintendent of the Calcutta botanic garden, had neglected to forward J. D. Hooker’s mail (Correspondence vol. 4, letters from J. D. Hooker, 26 November 1850 and 6 and 7 April 1850).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 with] added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1390,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1390