Darwin Correspondence Project

Down— Bromley Kent

March 11

My dear Hooker

I am truly pleased in every way at your grant; I hope & have no doubt, that it will give you more satisfaction than mine did me, in as much as you will make a far worthier use of it— Pray never apologise for asking any question, which I can answer; it is a pleasure to me.— With all Sir William's experience, you will have a good start in publication-affairs— I fear I cannot help you much.— I enclose (which keep as long as you like, but sometime return to me) 1^st a paper (which read first) containing a scheme of my & Andrew Smith's system of publication 2^d rough copies of the account, sent in of 1^s class expences for each number to the Treasury, (which I accompanied by a letter vouching for their accuracy) 3^d a statement of sale & all expences of the Work, when it has more than half completed.— If you could get a sight of the Zoology of Beagle in the numbers, you could then see the cost of each Part.— The Drawing is included in the engraving.— Colouring is the heaviest of the second-class expences. If the work had sold well (I think now between 150 & 200 copies are sold) money w^d have been realised for further publication.— I am publishing my geology on the credit of the stock in hand.— If you want any other information, I could give you a note to Smith & Elder & I am sure they w^d give you all information— I have found Smith & Elder a most pleasant, fair, attentive, & obliging firm to have any business with.— You will manage wonderfully well if you produce 500 Plates & any letter press for the grant. Let me caution you, that you will find expences increase beyond any estimate; always bear this in mind.

I sent on Saturday my volumcito to you by Deliverance Company; it is purely geological.—

If you have any further doubts about Malden Is^d you had better consult Krusentern's Mem: on the Pacific, which probably you know—it is in Geograph. Soc.— How capital & satisfactory your conclusions made unknown to yourself about the Flora of this island.

In the Flora of the Pacific, I sh^d think, judging from shells, that the great open space of water between the Low or Dangerous Archipelago & the American coast, was the dividing line; it is wonderfully so with the sea-shells.—

The supposed Asiatic character of the Flora of Oceania, I had thought was connected with the heavy gales, or almost hurricanes, coming from that quarter & being opposed to the trade-winds; not that I suppose the actual species have been transported; but the possibility of communication seems to produce affinity in the organic beings of two regions. If you will look at the map in my Coral-volume, you will see that probably much more land existed within geologically recent times than now exists.—

To return, I know that an artist can almost immediately learn to draw on Lithographic stones.— I believe Hullmandell is a good Lithog. printer; but I found him rather troublesome.

I forgot to tell you before that D^r Boott has (I believe) all the Carex's which I collected, & I think one remarkable one from the Galapagos: he no doubt w^d inform you or lend the specimens, if he still has them.— I do not suppose I paid much attention to collecting the grasses at the Galapagos.— I think I told you there are no large Ferns or Palms or Palmettos. With respect to the different isl^d having different species, the main point appears to me, whether any two or three islands have close representative species of the same genus; the simple fact of one isl^d having a species & another isl^d not having it is far less wonderful. How curious is the distribution in this latter sense of the terrestrial Amblyrhynchus.— The tree Compositæ were, I think, all, certainly most, from the summits of the Isl^ds: do not, pray, forget my question of the summits in these cases, having the most peculiar Flora.—

I suppose you will consider Juan Fernandez: Has not Bertero, in his list in Silliman's Journal, published a list of plants of this isl^d? I think M. Gay has also written on this isl^d— I presume you have Endlicher's Flora of Norfolk Is^d; otherwise I c^d lend it you for any time.—

I must have some more thinking over your curious remarks on distribution of large genera; you have put the case rather differently from that which I had intended; but I will sometime trouble you with another letter. Excuse this untidy letter; as I am not well.

Yours ever | C. Darwin