WCP5308

[1]

Royal Gardens Kew

[6 or 7 July 1870]¹

My dear Darwin

Thanks for the names of the Orchid: books²; please let me see them when you have arranged your pamphlets 3 mo[nth]^s hence.

Have you read Claparede³? it⁴ is not so good as I expected it would have been, ^& is rather windy I think — is it worth translation as an avant courier for the "Origin of Man"?⁵ if so I would set some one to do it for Nature⁶ or some [2] other periodical. —

You & old Brandt⁷ are "en lutte" [French: in struggle] for the Acad[emy]: of Sciences.⁸ which will be decided I hear on the 15^th or 20^th — What a farce it is!.

I am delighted to hear that you are on the eve of printing.⁹ — I am hard at work on Nepenthes¹⁰ for D[e]C[andolle]¹¹. Prodr[omus]¹²: — this genus supports ^{Miquels13 &} Wallace’s view of the identity of Bornan ^Bornean & Sumatran Zoology & the differences of Java from [3] either most marvellously. Who first published¹⁴ on that curious point? I remember old Blume¹⁵ telling me of it in Leyden in 1845. and I think that Miquel has published on it — can you refer me?¹⁶

Hodgson¹⁷ has been here for 2 days, & is nettled at you not having alluded in your chapter¹⁸ on dogs to his paper¹⁹ on the Indian dog — I told him that I could not doubt but that it was not it’s [sic] value that you underrated, but that it illustrated no points in his [4] subject. —

Bastian’s²⁰ paper^{21 in Nature} is full of curious matter but eminently unsatisfactory in treatment I think, & poorly written.

Lyell²² was here on Tuesday, looking remarkably well — he does not like Bentham’s²³ Address²⁴ at all — ^{or perhaps only the drift of it.} I am so glad you admire it's care & thought.

We spent last Sunday at Mr G[eorge]. Macleay[']s²⁵ who has taken Pendell Court near Bletchyngly [Bletchingley] — he is a pleasant and interesting man, & an ardent admirer of his old curmudgeon of a brother — William²⁶. I ascended to the top of the N. Downs (Eastern continuation of the Reigate range) & was struck with the capping of very fine gravel. I wish I knew more of tertiary geology, but suppose I²⁷should only disbelieve — as I do the whole theory of the upper & lower gravel levels of the Somme & Seine &c. I never can believe that existing rivers or river basins capped these hills with thick beds of gravel which represent ^{either sea shores or} drainage over great areas & an enormous amount of denudation of some still higher land, than the hill tops themselves —

Ever your affectionate & ignorant skeptic | J D Hooker [signature]