To J. D. Hooker   28 March [1871]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

March 28th

My dear Hooker

Many thanks for your very jolly letter.2 I send off a small plant of the Hibiscus today by rail.— It has been kept in the cooler of my two Hothouses, & will soon be covered with flowers— I hope it will travel safely.3

Take enclosed with you & ask your 2 friends to read it once or twice for chance of any one point being observed.—4

I am sure you must want a change & rest & I hope it will do you a world of good.—

I enjoy no Kudos whatever like that of accuracy so you are quite right to boast5

Thanks for all your answers. Do not forget about quite young plants of Drosophyllum.6

Farewell my dear old friends.

Yours affecty | C. Darwin

I now hear from Murray that Edit. of my book will probably be 6500.—7

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871.
3
See letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 and n. 2. The Kew Inwards Book (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) records the receipt of the plant on 4 April 1871.
4
The enclosure has not been found but was probably a copy of CD’s Queries on expression (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 July [1871]; for the queries, see Correspondence vol. 19, Appendix VII). Hooker was about to travel to Morocco with George Maw and John Ball.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
1.1 small] interl
2.1 with you] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7630,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7630