From J. D. Hooker   [29 December 1861]1

Kew

Sunday.

Dr Darwin

We employ several heaters & have written fully to Mr Cresy about them.2

My wicked conscience smited me about the Gongora when your letter came— I am truly shut up & confess I forgot that very trifling commission.3 I do not give up Acropera luteola—& think I shall find some reference to it yet.4

Do you hear from Asa Gray now? & if so does he with you (as with me) avoid all allusion to politics & war. I do not know your views on this crisis   I am with the popular view in this country & do confess I long to see the Yankees well drubbed by us.— I have no further sympathy with the South than that it is the weakest.—& I have no wish to see England break the blockades.5

Willy has returned from his Quarantine—all clear. I think he improves but is singularly backward & childish of his years.6 he is very good & a charming boy in disposition & manners, so generous unselfish & conscientious, like poor dear old Henslow.—7 he has lots of brains, but no power whatever of using them, no memory, & the most volatile disposition of any child I ever saw. The rest are all well.

I have been in bed half day with violent cold to the amazement of the household & ⁠⟨⁠3 words illeg and text destroyed⁠⟩⁠

Do you want Eul⁠⟨⁠ophia⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠viridis⁠⟩⁠8 Have you any inqu⁠⟨⁠iries⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ Otago? Dr Hector ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ Geolog. Surveyor ea⁠⟨⁠  ⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ & dines with me on Fri⁠⟨⁠day⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ send at once & I will ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ for his executing any sci⁠⟨⁠entific⁠⟩⁠ commissions.9

I have been reading J. Haasts survey of N.W. parts of Middle Island. he alludes to extensive drift formations (Glacial) amongst the mountains.10

Oliver gave me enclosed reference possibly worth your consulting

Yours | J D Hooker

[Enclosure]

Lestibudois Phyllotaxie Anatomique in Ann. Sc. Nat.11

CD annotations

4.1 Willy … saw. 4.5] ‘Whateley’12 brown crayon
Top of first page: ‘Naudin13 | Henslow’s life’14 ink
End of letter: ‘Glacial’ ink, circled ink; ‘Jan.— 1862’ ink
1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to J. D. Hooker, 27 [December 1861]. The following Sunday was 29 December.
3
See letters to J. D. Hooker, 18 [December 1861], 27 [December 1861], and 28 [December 1861].
5
Hooker refers to the so-called ‘Trent affair’. See letter to Asa Gray, 11 December [1861] and n. 3.
6
Hooker’s eldest child, William Henslow Hooker, was eight years old. William had been quarantined with suspected scarlet fever (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 [December 1861]).
7
John Stevens Henslow, Hooker’s father-in-law, had died in May 1861.
8
Eulophia is a genus of orchids. See letter to J. D. Hooker, [30 and 31 December 1861].
9
James Hector was preparing to leave for New Zealand, where he was to assume the position of geologist to the provincial government of Otago (DNB). In the fourth edition of Origin, CD cited information provided by Hector concerning evidence of past glacial action in New Zealand (Origin 4th ed., p. 443).
10
Haast 1861, pp. 89–124.
11
Lestiboudois 1848.
12
In the letter to J. D. Hooker, 16 January [1862] (Correspondence vol. 10), CD related an anecdote told to him by Richard Whately, archbishop of Dublin, about a boy who, although thought a dunce throughout childhood, came to exhibit his inherited genius as an adult.
14
Jenyns ed. 1862.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3374,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3374