Dear Darwin

The plants go tomorrow—all but the Euphorbiaceae anent which please let us know what sort of plants are wanted— There are no end of them, Herbs, Trees, Shrubs, evergreen, deciduous, succulents & thin leaved¹

Dischidia Rafflesiana I have tried for 25 years to get for Kew— We had one little plant a year ago, that had life in it, but the Foreman would pot it on & killed it.² I have seeds, just sown, but not yet germinated. You know of course Griffiths paper in Trans. Linn. Soc.³

I have long wished to experiment on it, but never shall now— Why should not Frank?— I will try again for young plants from Sincapore. whither we have just sent a good man. The common species, D. Bengalensis, has no pitchers & grows like an ordinary plant.⁴

I send our only plants of Drosophyllum— we can get others so do not “agitate yourself” about hurting it, & vivisect it at your sweet will.⁵

We go to Pitt Rivers from Saturday till Tuesday— I hate those big swell houses.⁶

Dyer returned last week. The Grays left Kew on Saturday & sailed yesterday.⁷

I have not seen the truculent Wiesner’s book.—⁸ & have a hopeless pile of literature to glance at on my table. The “intellectual activity” of the age is horrid.

I am finishing up Palmae for Gen. Plant,—the most difficult job I ever undertook—& perhaps the most unsatisfactory⁹

Ever aff yrs | J D Hooker