From William Jackson Hooker   14 February 1831

My dear Sir

It is very difficult to form an idea of the value of one collection of plants without seeing them. I knew Sir Theo. Gage & many of his plants; & generally speaking what he collected himself were good & beautifully preserved. He had some good Portuguese plants, a portion of which he gave to me: & what Cryptogamia he collected in the South of Ireland & those which he received from the Miss Hutchens are interesting. So that had you the offer of the whole of his collection I should say they are cheap at 25£. But as you say tell me part of them only is offered I hardly know what to say. The best part may & probably is retained by his own family & what they propose to dispose of may be duplicates only, & they probably unnamed. The 200 Italian plants are good if named.– but Schleicher’s plants are trash. £25 will now a days buy 2,500 species if European plants well named, & at the dearest rate. You know the Unio Itinerario offered their plants at about 30 ^s the 200. Reichenbach now offers (& I have just sent Hunneman an order for a set of of German plants at 5 dollars the 100, beautifully dried & carefully named. Still I am willing to allow that the circumstance of the collection you allude to, having been Sir Thos. Gage’s, increases their value:& if there are a 1000 named species, Cryptogamia or otherwise, exclusion of Schleicher’s, I should say they are not dear. You should ask the family to give you in a collection of drawings of the Lichens of the Pleomyxa (?) family done by Sir Thos. ^s himself which were very beautiful.

I am truly glad to find you expressing a hope that you may visit Scotland this year. Can you not come before the end of June? I think at that time of going, not to Killin as usual, with my students, but to Inverary to explore 2 or 3 mountains in that neighbourhood. The Minister of Inverary, a fair Botanist & a particular friend of mine has offered to be our guide; & he is well acquainted with the whole country. I have just had a letter from Wilson who has returned to Warrington after an absence I think of more than a year. He has laid in a vast stock of specimens & of knowledge too, & I hope he will publish specimens of his Mosses. I have induced him to give some descriptions to Sowerby for his Supplement of Engl. Bot. ^y What he undertakes he will do well. He is really a very extraordinary man & I scarcely know which to admire most his botanical acuteness or his private worth & character.

M. ^rs Hooker & I both hope that when you travel in Scotland, M. ^rs Henslow will be with you. It will give us such pleasure to offer her every attention in our power & & if she has not yet visited the north she will see much to admire.

Ever most | truly & faithfully yours |W. J. Hooker