From J. D. Hooker [4 June 1864]1
Kew
Saturday.
Dear old D
I have been desperately pressed with work of late—&, as you know, take full licence to leave you in the lurch, without fear of consequences, in all such cases.
I return Scotts testimonials,2 which are quite satisfactory, & which he should keep I shall forward their grist to Anderson, who I shall write privately to, & also give Scott a letter to, & who I hope will aid him materially.—3 I cannot help thinking that Scott ought to do admirably well in many good places in India, & will be get on— Thomson,4 who knows all that I know & has seen Balfour’s former letters, thinks so too.—5 Cleghorn, Superintendent of Forest department is coming home,6 but I shall write to his locum tenens, Dr Stewart,7 & Thomsn will do so too. I will also give him a letter to Grote at Calcutta,8 a great friend of mine who is high up in position & very fond of gardening. The great thing would be for him to get temporary employment however small, as soon as possible after landing; & wait for some good appt. turning up. in the Forest, Tea or Cinchona plantations: which must be before long. Scotts peculiar temper will be no obstacle to the Hindoos & Mussulmen working well under him, & there is no occasion to say any thing about it at all to my correspondent— in fact there is no call for me to say anything about positions for which I do not think him suited.9
God help me, I find your letter of 31st. says that silence shall mean I cannot send you Cardiospermum & Commelyna. 10 I believe you can have both— I will see to them at once & to Adlumia 11 & other creepers. The fact is, our new man finds his own hands full & a deal for us to do;—we are losing plants by hundreds from bad cultivation & shall be much worse before we can be better.12 The whole establishment nearly has been so utterly neglected horticulturally, all last winter that our hot-houses especially are all but denuded of rare new & interesting plants: & our young new & rare things are perishing by thousands from improper treatment— Of all the fine crop of Nepenthes I had raised a year or so ago (& sent you 2 young plants of)13 there is scarce one to be found young or old— The new man finds he must repot the plants in the whole garden, & teach the men how to do it too.— We are like a business that has just called in an accountant on the verge of bankruptcy, & are proportionally anxious & worried It is this summer that is telling on the plants,—growth commences & there are no roots to meet demand; the bottoms of the pots full of mud from neglect bad soil & overwatering—the leaves loaded with vermin. Cinchona plants all killed but 3— not a Dendrobe in flower.14 Water lilies reduced to 2 species! Economic plants no-where. Per contra our new man seems a splendid & most judicious fellow—but how he will manage with some of the old foremen passes my finding out— I look forward to some rows for certain; meanwhile he is most prudent, & working with his own hands with a will.
Nepenthes certainly climbs by tips of leaves,15 I will try & get you a cutting struck.
I am going to Dublin at end of month to see see some new fashioned double roofed plant houses which I fancy are a great success— I shall probably send wife to Middleton Teesdale16 in July with Dr & Mrs Harvey17 & try & get down there a little myself as I have to go to see Backhouses nurseries18—but must be back by 21st.
Ever yr affec | J D Hooker
I hope Scott will come here before he sails, does he go overland if not, I will send a Ward case19 by same ship.
CD annotations20
Footnotes
Bibliography
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.
DIB: Dictionary of Indian biography. By C. E. Buckland. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1906.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Stebbing, E. P. 1922–6. The forests of India. 3 vols. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head.
Ward, Nathaniel Bagshaw. 1842. On the growth of plants in closely glazed cases. London: John Van Voorst.
Summary
JDH is writing letters for Scott, whose temper will be "no obstacle for Hindoos and Musselmen working under him".
New curator at Kew finds considerable neglect, with hundreds of plants dying.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4519
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 222–4
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4519,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4519.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 12