WCP5313

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Hendrefoilan Swansea¹

Ja[nuar]y 25/[18]59

Dear Darwin

I am very greatly relieved & pleased by Wallace[']s letter² which I have forwarded to Lyell.³

I am here rusticating with my friends the Dillwyns⁴ & giving 3-4 hours a day steadily to my Australian Essay⁵ — which I hope may progress at last. Since seeing you I have seen a very intelligent Madras naturalist⁶ who confirms what I say of the Casuarina⁷ being truly naturalized in Madras — He tells me that other Australian plants are naturalized at Hyderabad⁸ & Bangalore,⁹ along with European (Plantago major¹⁰) but I want more definite information. I do not know why you object to the Nilgherries¹¹ — as localities for [2] naturalization of Australian plants. — they are vast upland areas where alone you have a climate for temperate Australian plants. I have been looking over the list of Australian European naturalized plants of Australia & find almost all are social or roadside or cultivated-field plants of England, that ^must have been introduced over & over again into Australia & by hundreds of people — Consider how many thousand people have imported Europ[ean]. Cerealia¹² &c &c into Victoria & garden plants. According to your own theories these plants have adapted ^themselves to dressed ^{or disturbed} ground, & most are found no where else. In Australia there was no such ground till Europeans made it & it — it [2 words struck through, illeg.] that would take centuries of civilization & cultivation to adapt any Australian plants to [3] these habits of life. Out of a list of upwards of 100 naturalized European plants of Melbourne all, with very few exceptions, are plants ^{that are scarcely ever} found in England ^except where they have been brought by man or his agents. — they are field, cultivated, dung heap, wayside, cornfield or pasture plants: & would disappear if the Victoria colony was deserted, most certainly. Exceptions occur as Rosa rubiginosa,¹³ which is the only woody plant in my list of 100:

Alphonse DeCandolle¹⁴ has written asking me to help him to election as Foreign fellow of R.S.^14a & referring me to you, Murchison¹⁵ & Lyell. I am greatly shocked, having always thought him too much of a gentleman, though I never gave him credit for overmuch modesty. I have been talking over the matter with Bentham¹⁶ [4] & Lindley¹⁷ & we both agree that Asa Gray[']s¹⁸ claims are out of sight superior, as also Grisebachs['] of Hanover.¹⁹ I think that A.G. Should come in,^19a & if I have an opportunity of mentioning it I would like to refer to you —

Mueller[']s²⁰ death offers a vacancy²¹ & they want an American & a Botanist[']s turn is more than passed.

I am rejoiced at the award of the Wollaston medal.²²

From the old glacial moraines of Sikkim to Kangra is about 900 miles. I know of [1 word struck through, illeg.] no more Westerly evidence.

Ever Y[ou]rs | Jos D Hooker [signature]