To John Scott   11 June [1863]1

Down

June 11th

Dear Sir

As the Abstract has not yet appeared in G. Chron. I sent your corrected copy to Dr. Hooker with the M.S. note on closing of stigma.—2

Dr. Hooker is evidently struck with your observations, & my sending these papers has produced the effect, which I hoped for as probable; for Dr. Hooker says “If I hear of anything at all likely to suit him, I will bear him in mind. If he is a good cultivator, the best place for him is in a good liberal orchid-growers garden like Mr Ruckers”.3 He adds “it is a pity he should throw away his papers on the Bot. Soc. of Edinburgh”. This last sentence you must keep private; & indeed, I would advise you the whole.—

Dr. Hooker thinks that if it is known that you agree at all with my views on species, it is enough to make you unpopular in Edinburgh; so you had better keep your views pretty quiet.—

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to the letter from J. D. Hooker, 10 June 1863.
2
An abstract of Scott’s paper on the pollination of orchids (Scott 1863a), read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh on 14 May 1863, appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 13 June 1863, p. 558. CD refers to a corrected copy of the abstract published in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 28 May 1863, p. 8, which he had forwarded to Joseph Dalton Hooker, together with the enclosure to the letter from John Scott, 21 May [1863] (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 [June 1863]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.4 in] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4212,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4212