From J. D. Hooker [before 7 March 1855]1
My dear Darwin
I have been hunting every where in vain for Godron,2 which I have not only seen, but read, since I came home from India. I shall not rest till I have ferretted it out— I thought it uncommonly little to the purpose, if I do not greatly err— the only thing I cannot reconcile is, my not having corresponded with you about it. Your tabulation of the Colonists3 is very curious & though subject to great fluctuations, I think that these are in a great measure reducible. Thus the Cruciferae are azoto philists & they follow man, but their presence is perhaps not to be attributed to the same causes that brought the Caryophyllae wh. are chiefly corn field plants. The individual species should however be scrutinized before you make any use of the data, & I shall be delighted to do this whenever you are ready.
I am going on with the Tasmanian Flora4 & find the subject very interesting— some of the scarcest & most local alpine plants reappear on the isolated summits of the Australian Alps, & thence too I have the English Sagina procumbens, which, so far as I know, has not been found in the South hemisp: except in the Falklands (this wants study though)
I am also preparing as I go on for a general work on the Geog. distrib of the whole Australian Flora—5 this is ambitious, but it is really the most extraordinary thing in the world.— The Flora of Swan river i.e. of extratrop S.W. Australia will I believe turn out to be the most peculiar on the Globe & specifically quite distinct from that of N. S. Wales—also generically to a much greater degree than any two similarly situated areas.
I returned yesterday from Thomson’s6 marriage at Bath, he has left for India via France. I spoke to Bennett7 about the Linn. Soc. & you are to have any reasonable number of volumes for a reasonable time but please do not talk about it. We are I hope really about to have a reform in the Linnean8 & get a first rate Natural History Journal established; I have been moving heaven & earth to get the Linnean to organize it & enlist contributors & subscribers & have such a thorough reform as shall bring us members, attendance & subscriptions— Natural Science languishes in this country for support & plenty are ready to
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Gage, Andrew Thomas. 1938. A history of the Linnean Society of London. London: Linnean Society of London.
Godron, Dominique Alexandre. 1848–9. De l’espèce et des races dans les êtres organisés du monde actuel. Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Nancy (1848): 182–288; De l’espèce considérée dans les êtres organisés, appartenant aux périodes géologiques qui ont précédé celle où nous vivons. Mémoires de la Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Nancy (1849): 381-420. Reprinted separately. 2 vols. Nancy. 1848–9.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1855–60. Flora Tasmaniæ. Pt 3 of The botany of the Antarctic voyage of HM Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, in the years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. 2 vols. London.
Summary
CD’s tabulation of colonists curious but explicable.
Working on Tasmanian flora; contemplating general essay on Australian distribution: Tasmania and Australia same alpine species; Swan River flora very peculiar and quite distinct from New South Wales.
Trying to establish new journal at Linnean.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1638
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 104: 216–17
- Physical description
- inc †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1638,” accessed on 12 September 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1638.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5
