Letter and/or further information available at http://jdh.aetopia.net/p/jdh?q=jhc471.
Please cite as “JHC471,” in Ɛpsilon: The Joseph Dalton Hooker Collection accessed on 15 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/hooker/letters/JHC471
JDH hopes to see Mr Foster at the upcoming Challenger Committee[?]. JDH discusses the importance of the post of Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, the need to fill the position suitably & the duties attendant upon it. Williamson has not been fulfilling these duties vis à vis writing up obituaries & summary of scientific proceedings abroad & JDH has encouraged his successors as President of the Royal Society, Sottiswoode & Huxley, to dismiss Williamson. JDH has received a good account of Mr Harting: gentleman & ornithologist. JDH speculates on the value of the Royal Horticultural Society keeping up its experimental garden at Chiswick & wonders, as [Charles Wentworth] Dilke did previously, if it could be moved to a piece of the palace grounds at 'a really scientific establishment' [possibly implying the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]. JDH doubts the success of the society because of the diversity of its members: Gentlemen, Tradesmen & Gardeners. He asks if there is any precedent for a successful society that consists of 2 classes of paying fellows.
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