From J. D. Hooker   [20 January 1865]1

Royal Gardens Kew

Dear Darwin

Not tomorrow, but tomorrow week if I can I shall be delighted to go to Down even though the Gooseberries will not be ripe!2 I have been worked to death by the Genera Plantarum.3

Ever yrs affec | J D Hooker

Friday.

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 January [1865]; see also letter from Frances Harriet Hooker, [27 January 1865]. In 1865, 20 January was a Friday.
2
CD had invited Hooker to spend Sunday at Down House (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 January [1865] and n. 4). Visiting during the gooseberry season had evidently become a joke between Hooker and the Darwin family (see, for example, letter from J. D. Hooker, [after 17 June 1865] and n. 6).
3
Hooker was collaborating with George Bentham on a multi-volume work describing all the known vascular plant genera (Bentham and Hooker 1862–83). The first two parts had been published in 1862.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4749,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4749