To J. D. Hooker   [4 June 1866]

My dear Hooker.—

Many thanks for Asa Gray, as I always like to read him.1 I was very uncomfortable for two days & all the world looked dismal to me, but everything looks brighter again now.—2 I knew that you would not care a bit about my omission,3 but I was much vexed at my own stupidity & strange forgetfulness; it seemed to me on that day like softening of the Brain! & I could have improved my own work by considering all your excellent remarks.4 Well it is too late— Cordial thanks & farewell— Ask Oliver to do a little favour for me.5

C. Darwin

Endorsement: ‘June 4/66’

1
Hooker evidently enclosed a letter from Asa Gray with his letter of [2 June 1866]. There is a letter from Gray to Hooker, dated 10 May 1866, in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Asa Gray letters, ff. 411–12).
2
CD had complained of poor health and stomach troubles (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 31 May [1866] and [31 May 1866]).
3
See letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 June 1866] and n. 3.
4
Hooker had supported CD’s transmutation theory in his essay on Arctic flora (J. D. Hooker 1860a).
5
The favour was probably detailed in an enclosure. The enclosure has not been found; see, however, the letter from Daniel Oliver, 9 June 1866.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5112,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5112