WCP2433

[1]¹

THE CAMP,

SUNNINGDALE.

Decr. 5/ 90

My dear Wallace,

I will see to your request² at once — but it will take a little time to do the subspecies & varieties, which lurk amongst the entangled species of Rubus, Rosa, & other genera, in which the said terms [illeg.] Subsp. & Var. means one thing with one specialist, & another with all others. I do not think that, taking such a genus as Hieracium, the facts are, or ever will be, agreed upon. [2] I must select a standard authority, & if a foreign one get the opinion of a British specialist thereon. Much has been done within the last few years in Scandinavia & Belgium & in correlating British with Continental forms[.]

There has been no catalogue of N. Z. plants published since my Handbook,³ & the flora is in a hopeless mess. —

I have been urging the N. Z. Govt. to employ Mr. T. Kirk,⁴ a thoroughly good man, in l bringing out a good flora of the Islands — & I shall take [3] this opportunity of your needs to urge it again — & suggest Kirks publishing a provisional list. The N. Z. flora should be pretty well doubled by this time.

We are all well & have survived the cold in so far as the human inhabitants are concerned, — but the frost has killed the young leaves of my (young) Magnolia grandifloras, & caused all the berries of Pyracantha to drop off. The Sikkim Rhubarbs do not seem to be hurt.

Er [sincerely] yrs | J D Hooker⁵ [signature]