Dear Darwin

You will find a brief notice of Begonia Phyllomaniaca in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. IV. 206² but not worth referring to & a longer one in Martius huge “Flora Brasiliensis”—³ I gather from it that the plant produces ramenta, that sometimes consist of a mere utricle, & that these may become new plants, but the description is far from clear.

I will go into the matter of this & other cases of the kind as soon as I can. Very many thanks for the explicit account of Pangenesis—which I completely misunderstood.⁴ I think I now follow your idea, but it takes a deal of thought, it is so very speculative— it is 1000 times more difficult to grasp than Atomic theory or Latent heat.⁵

We are in great sorrow—on account of poor Oliver having lost his little girl, only two days after he got into my late house here:⁶ a sweet little thing of 3 or 4, was taken ill just as my child was, before they left Acton.⁷ Their Doctor (a Homæopathist) made no objection to their bringing the child across to Kew, where it died yesterday. I can hardly bear to think of it: poor Oliver finds comfort in the fact that it was taken ill before he left Acton, as his wife had a great prejudice against Kew & he truly says that it would have been fatal to his comfort ever after in the house, if the seizure had taken place in it. He has one other child, younger.⁸

I do hope the poor fellow will leave Kew at once with his wife— the interment takes place tomorrow at a Friends’ cemetry at Isleworth.⁹

The Doctor had pronounced the child quite out of danger a few hours before it died—but I felt sure that the apparent improvement was a fatal symptom. It was a very lovely child, but delicate looking though it never ailed any-thing.

Ever my dear old Darwin | Yrs affec | Jos D Hooker