Down

Sunday

My dear Hooker

I return with many thanks Watson’s letter which I have had copied:¹ it is a capital one & I am extremely obliged to you for obtaining me such valuable information: Surely he is rather in a hurry when he says intermediate varieties must almost be necessarily rare, otherwise they would be taken as the types of the species; for he overlooks numerical frequency as an element. Surely if A. B C were three varieties & if A were a good deal the commonest (therefore, also, first known) it would be taken as the type, without regarding whether B was quite intermediate or not, or whether it was rare or not.— What capital essays W. would write, but I suppose he has written a good deal in the Phytologist;² you ought to encourage him to publish on variation; it is a shame that such facts as those in his letter sh^d. remain unpublished; I must get you to introduce me to him Would he be a good & sociable man for Dropmore?³ though if he comes Forbes must not, (& I think you talked of inviting Forbes) or we shall have a glorious battle.⁴ I sh^d. like to see sometime the war-correspondence: have you the Phytologist & c^d. you sometime spare it; I w^d go through it quickly.—⁵ I have not heard from Murray;⁶ I am rather sorry to hear about D^r. Holland being probably the reviewer:⁷ he does not know enough of Nat. Hist. & between ourselves he is so dreadfully conceited & vain that he never w^d. condescend to learn, or to think enough of the labours of others.— I have read your 5 last numbers,⁸ & as usual been much interested in several points; especially with your discussions on the beach & potato; I see you have introduced several sentences against us transmutationists.⁹

I have also been looking through the latter vols. of the Annals. of Nat. Hist, & have read two such soulless pompous papers of Hinds,¹⁰ quite worthy of the Author of the Regions of Vegetation.¹¹ The contrast of the papers in the Annals with those in the Annales ¹² is rather humiliating; so many papers in the former, with short descriptions of species, without one word on their affinities, internal structure, range, or habits.— I am now reading Royle¹³ & I have picked out some things which have interested me; but he strikes me as rather dullish & with all his Materia Medica smells of the Doctor’s shop. I shall ever hate the name of Materia Medica, since hearing Duncan’s lectures at 8 oclock in a winter’s morning—a whole, cold, breakfastless hour on the properties of rhubarb!¹⁴

I hope your journey will be very prosperous—¹⁵ believe me my dear Hooker | Ever yours C. Darwin.

I think I have only made one new acquainta〈nce〉 of late, that is R. Chambers,¹⁶ and I have just received a presentation copy of the 6^th Edit of the Vestiges: somehow I now feel perfectly convinced he is the Author.¹⁷ He is in France & has written to me thence.—