WCP6705

[1]¹

Nov 23/[18]90

Dear Gray²

I have been overhauling the things lying at the Herbarium for you, & find just — nothing at all amongst them.

1 There are 26 newspapers.

2 A letter from Baird³ about a Bronze statue of Henry[.]

3 A copy of C. E. Norton[']s Church building in the Middle Ages.

[2] 4 Fine specimen of Castanea pumila ^vesca with spikes of ♀ (imitating ♂ inflorescence I suppose) from Martindale.

5 Enclosed note.

We are all well & longing to see you back. Darwin's "Movements of Plants" is out, — it is capital of course — but Wallace[']s Island Life is the attractive [3] Nat[ural] Hist[ory] book of the season — or ought to be.

Birkely & his <dau[ghte]r> have been a week with us, & left prematurely yesterday with a very bad attack of Gout coming on. He suffers terribly from all sorts of ailments — Gout, Gravel, Shingles, Eczema, Rheumatism — & has all his life, how he holds together is a mystery to me: he is 78.

[4] Hyacinth⁴ will see about Miss Shepard[']s rooms: she joins in love to you both.

E[ve]r aff[ectionatel]y y[ou]rs | Jos. D. Hooker [signature]