From J. D. Hooker   [6 April 1866]1

Kew

Friday.

Dear Darwin

You will find a brief notice of Begonia Phyllomaniaca in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. IV. 2062 but not worth referring to & a longer one in Martius huge “Flora Brasiliensis”—3 I gather from it that the plant produces ramenta, that sometimes consist of a mere utricle, & that these may become new plants, but the description is far from clear.

I will go into the matter of this & other cases of the kind as soon as I can. Very many thanks for the explicit account of Pangenesis—which I completely misunderstood.4 I think I now follow your idea, but it takes a deal of thought, it is so very speculative— it is 1000 times more difficult to grasp than Atomic theory or Latent heat.5

We are in great sorrow—on account of poor Oliver having lost his little girl, only two days after he got into my late house here:6 a sweet little thing of 3 or 4, was taken ill just as my child was, before they left Acton.7 Their Doctor (a Homæopathist) made no objection to their bringing the child across to Kew, where it died yesterday. I can hardly bear to think of it: poor Oliver finds comfort in the fact that it was taken ill before he left Acton, as his wife had a great prejudice against Kew & he truly says that it would have been fatal to his comfort ever after in the house, if the seizure had taken place in it. He has one other child, younger.8

I do hope the poor fellow will leave Kew at once with his wife— the interment takes place tomorrow at a Friends’ cemetry at Isleworth.9

The Doctor had pronounced the child quite out of danger a few hours before it died—but I felt sure that the apparent improvement was a fatal symptom. It was a very lovely child, but delicate looking though it never ailed any-thing.

Ever my dear old Darwin | Yrs affec | Jos D Hooker

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to J. D. Hooker, 4 April [1866]. In 1866, the first Friday after 4 April was 6 April.
2
See letter to J. D. Hooker, 4 April [1866]. The description of Begonia phyllomaniaca appeared in the London Journal of Botany 4 (1852): 206–7. The journal was edited by William Jackson Hooker. The plant is described as producing from the stem, branches, and petioles innumerable leaflets, which, when detached and placed in moist soil, produce perfect plants.
3
Hooker refers to Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius’s Flora Brasiliensis (Martius ed. 1840–1906, vol. 4 part 1 (1852–63): 386–7).
5
On the development of the atomic theory of matter in the nineteenth century, see Brock and Knight 1967, and Rocke 1984. On the concept of latent heat in relation to other theories of heat in the nineteenth century, see Brush 1983, pp. 46–54.
6
Daniel Oliver’s daughter was Theodora Jane Oliver. On becoming director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in November 1865, Hooker had moved from 55 Kew Green to 49 Kew Green (R. Desmond 1995, p. 416). Oliver had been given increased responsibilities at Kew, following Hooker’s appointment as director (see Correspondence vol. 13, letter from J. D. Hooker, [3 November 1865]).
7
Maria Elizabeth Hooker had died in 1863 at the age of 6 (see Correspondence vol. 11, letter from J. D. Hooker, [28 September 1863]). Acton is about two miles north of Kew.
8
Oliver and his wife, Hannah Hobson Oliver, had a son, Francis Wall Oliver.
9
Isleworth, a large village on the Thames, about one mile from Kew, had a Society of Friends’ Meeting House (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1866).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5047,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5047