WCP5545

[1]

Demerara

23. Sep^t 1869

My Dear Hooker

I have to thank you for your two most kind letters of July 8, and Aug:16^th

I am glad to find that you have got back safely from your Russian Tour, and that you enjoyed your holiday. It was certainly a shabby proceeding of "Bob Lowe"¹ to refuse to reimburse your travelling expenses, and I sincerely hope that such cheese-paring and [2] parsimony, where science is concerned, may soon be put an end to. — The [one illeg.word struck through] ^well abased[?] Tory Administration was much more liberal in that respect. I am afraid from what you say that we are not likely to get more help from the Home Gov[ernmen]^t. on the prosecution of our Geological Survey, than which no more important inquiry, so far as the Colony is concerned, has been undertaken in my day. — Mr Sawkins² left for the interior about the beginning of this month [3] intending to proceed by the Essequibo³ to Pirara⁴, and the high lands in that direction, — and to be absent from four to six months.— He begged me to say to you that he hopes to be in England in the Spring, when he will be happy to show you his sketches of Roraima⁵ &c. and will probably read some account of his Travels at the Geographical Soc[iet]y — He has also promised to look out for anything of Botanical interest so far as his knowledge[?] [4] and means will avail. —

I am at a loss to know what grass you allude to as having been introduced into this Colony by M^r Parker⁶ some 40 years ago. — It may be what we call Para Grass introduced by him or M^r Tinne⁷ from Surinam more than 20 years ago. — It has now spread over the whole Colony and is used to a considerable extent as green food for Horses and Cattle. — It spreads so rapidly that it is considered a nuisance in the neighbourhood [5] of Cane cultivation and Gardens. It is I think a Panicum but I cannot say whether it is P. spectabile or not. — A grass very highly esteemed here is called Bahama grass, and is I believe Cynodon dactylon. — It forms a dense turf, and if encouraged kills or keeps under all the coarser grasses. — It is much esteemed as fodder for Horses, but from being short and difficult to cut not so much used as Para grass. —

Captain Kerr⁸ has sent another contribution which I [6] am forwarding by this Steamer. — He gives it the extraordinary name of the "Asthepoker Plum" being I suppose a phonetic attempt at the Indian name. — I think it must be the same as what has been called in some of our Lists of Woods "Assepaca", but that is only a guess too. —

Our Attorney General, M^r John Lucie Smith⁹, who was introduced to you when last in England, is going as Chief Justice to Jamaica. He proposes [7] to call on you on his arrival in England, to which he proceeds by this Mail, and he will keep his eye on Kerr’s Plants when on board the Steamer. — We shall miss him very much here, for he is a very talented man, and his place cannot easily be filled. —

Many thanks for your address to the B[ritish]. Association¹⁰, and Paper on Island Floras. — I see you are deeply dipped in Darwinism, and gave an [8] awful hit at the writer in the Athenaeum and other benighted individuals who like myself find it a hard nut to crack. Perhaps if, like you, I had studied the subject, with the aid of Wallace and Darwin¹¹, I might have become a convert. In the meantime I am an unbeliever. — The want of access to books on the subject is a great drawback. —

I am doing what I can to get a few folks to take an interest in the Manilla Tobacco Seed so kindly sent me. —

Yours very sincerely | W. H. Campbell [signature]

J[oseph]. D[alton]. Hooker Esq