My dear Darwin

I think my last letter must have crossed yours, in wh I made it clear that all B. cares about is a notice however short of the trimorphous plant in the Societys possession appearing in Linn. Journal or Transactions—¹ a verbatim copy of your obs^ns. in your book would do quite well.² You will never be able to give up orchids once you have begun them & I have no doubt we shall have plenty papers on them from you— I am mighty curious to see your little book & prepared to devour it with eagerness.

I am really sorry about the blunder in my Arctic paper (& in anticipation for the others you will find) but it is of mighty little consequence, you being the only one who has found it out.—³ it is well this should be so— I should never have written such papers but for you: & the evulgation of your views is the purest pleasure I derive from them—

I am staggered equally with you by the idea that Greenland ought to have been depopulated during the Glacial period: but if so how is it that its temperate flora is no richer than its arctic— if it had been populated by migration since the glacial epoch, surely some species suited to the south end would have got over there— there are plenty such in Iceland.— then again the absence of Caltha, anywhere in Greenland & other plants that swarm elsewhere all round the circle, is as fatal as any indirect evidence can be to the population of the whole by chance migration— If you intend to ask me when we meet how I account for richness of Lapland Flora, I will take care to flee your presence.—⁴ I am utterly at sea when I attempt to jog out of the quiet locus standens—of Lapland being the focus for the lattermost migration. I grant that the idea may be utterly false, of its being the centre   I have some vague notion that the preglacial focus of Scandinavian plants was a terra polaris, that united Greenland, Iceland & Scandinavia (not perhaps in latitude but somehow). What it may have embraced to the N. of America & Asia I neither know nor care: for it is quite clear that there have been very great modern changes of level amongst the Polar American Islands, which I suppose are rising. I only call this vegetation Scandinavian because it is now represented best in Scandinavia & this partly because of present climate of Scandinavia & partly because of its mts. having afforded a favoring climate to said plants during post glacial warm period.

I cannot too strongly impress the fact that Greenland is unaccountably poor in plants.— its comparatively equable (for an Arctic) climate is singularly favorable for a northern Flora. In summer the line of perp. snow in Disco is above 4000 feet I am told. Just look again at the list of Arctic species at p. 272, found in Europe & America but not in Greenland.

I have not a shadow of doubt about wholesale extinction in E.N. America.

Masdevallia has not a single flower. I shall try to recollect it next year.— the Lythrum &c shall go whenever the weather admits.⁵

If you take up G. Lewis Astronomy—I advise you to read only the Chapter VI.⁶

Has Etty read Miss Rogers “Domestic Life in Palestine⁷   it is charming to my mind.

Ever yours “by George” (only an expletive) | Jos D Hooker