From J. D. Hooker 16 February 1864
Kew
Feby 16/64.
My dear Darwin
Our only large Flagellaria is 40 years old,! & we fear to remove it.1 Yours of Feby 6 is most intensely interesting & suggestive—2 What gigantic strides you are making in Veg. Phys.— Bentham is most anxious to have something this of yours to allude to in his anniversary address at which he is working3
We have not Naravelia alive, but I am writing to Anderson at Calcutta about it.—4 I do not see how we can any longer deny nerve-force to plants;—5 I think we used once to argue about it— When & where do you propose to publish?6
I suppose axis may pass into tendrils somehow as any organ may become axial & bear buds.7
Poor Horner has been at deaths-door with congestion of Lungs, last Friday or Saturday but is much better.8 he is in his 80th. year I think. All the family are up. Lyell9 came & spent Sunday afternoon & evening with us, very pleasantly, full of chat; we discussed Franklands new glacial theory which I think the most monstrous absurdity ever broached in Science & the most ill digested attempt.10 Have you seen Falconers attempt to explain absence of Lakes in Himal Valleys?— I fear it is not very successful.11
Have you seen the pamphlet on the production of sexes in animals &c, if not I can send it you.12
In “Ansted Ionian Islands” is a very suggestive account of the way vegetation breaks up rocks, & buildings producing Earthquaque appearances.13
I saw Lindley14 on Sunday looking very ill, complaining of constant headaches with the loss of memory.— So poor old Portlock is gathered to his fathers.15
I am very glad of the settlement of the Williams case by the Privy Council16—& shall subscribe to the Colenso defence fund on principle;17 but am not quite sure about Colenso himself— he ought to go further. My hope is that after the trial he will go out just to assert his position & then retire. his holding his Bishopric in Natal can only breed intolerable confusion & do his cause mischief; & as to his going out to convert Zulus, why, he has Xtians here to convert, & the Zulus are not worth a thought:— He might come back with great glory & set up in England as a Tutor abandoning his title & mitre.18 I have seen a good deal of him & consider him sanguine & unsafe.19
We are making private enquiries about a Curator to succeed Mr Smith,20 & I have written to Balfour, I wonder if he will recommend Scott;21 if he wants to get rid of him he is sure to do so. Do you know any-thing of Scotts capacity as manager of a large establishment, with 5 foremen, & no end of accounts, gardeners & labourers under him. I have my eye on the D. of Northumberlands Gardener at Syon,22 a man I like much, who had the wit to impregnate the Cocoa-nut which is now ripening & is very fond of scientific gardening, keeps an enormous establishment in splendid order, & is not too old.— oddly enough his name is John Smith.! he has been to volunteer for the appointment but we have taken no steps whatever yet.
Ever yr affec | J D Hooker
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Annual register: The annual register. A view of the history and politics of the year. 1838–62. The annual register. A review of public events at home and abroad. N.s. 1863–1946. London: Longman & Co. [and others].
Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.
‘Climbing plants’: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. [Read 2 February 1865.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 9 (1867): 1–118.
Colenso, John William. 1862–79. The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined. 5 vols. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Ray. 1994. Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. New edition, revised with the assistance of Christine Ellwood. London: Taylor & Francis and the Natural History Museum. Bristol, Pa.: Taylor & Francis.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Ellis, Ieuan. 1980. Seven against Christ. A study of "Essays and reviews". Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
Essays and reviews. London: John W. Parker. 1860.
Falconer, Hugh. 1868. Palæontological memoirs and notes of the late Hugh Falconer … with a biographical sketch of the author. Compiled and edited by Charles Murchison. 2 vols. London: Robert Hardwicke.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Guy, Jeff. 1983. The heretic. A study of the life of John William Colenso 1814–1883. Pietermaritzberg, South Africa: University of Natal Press. Johannesburg, South Africa: Ravan Press.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Russell, Colin Archibald. 1996. Edward Frankland: chemistry, controversy and conspiracy in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thury, Marc Antoine. 1863. Mémoire sur la loi de production des sexes chez les plantes les animaux et l’homme. 2d edition. Geneva and Paris: Joël Cherbuliez.
Turrill, William Bertram. 1959. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, past and present. London: Herbert Jenkins.
Summary
CD’s climbing plant experiments make it impossible to deny nerve force in plants.
Has discussed Frankland’s new glacial theory with Lyell.
Bishop Colenso’s trial.
Possibility of Scott’s coming to Kew as a curator.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4408
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 183–5
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4408,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4408.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12