From J. D. Hooker 26 [and 27] March 1867¹

Royal Gardens Kew

March | 26/67

Dear Darwin

I am quite crazy for seeds of plants, & you never can go wrong in sending me rejectamenta of seeds plants & orchids— the drain on us is terrific & we loose many things through change of hands & various causes affecting too big an establishment. The climbing Lobelia** must be a fine thing— Pray let me have a plant or two if it germinates.— The oxalis seeds will be most acceptable.²

Thanks for the Viola case, but what I understood you to say was, that a boreal violet was found in the Peak. I knew of this one.— it is a Mediterranean form I believe.³

We are very anxious about our Baby,⁴ which after 3 months thriving was seized with Convulsions last Sunday, which continue every 2 to 3 hours though not so violent as at first. It has no head symptoms, no fever or sickness, & it is attributed to too much vegetable food. It takes it’s food well, & sleeps well meanwhiles.

I do not go to Paris till about 14^th. April.⁵ I am glad to say.

Your Willy⁶ was here on Sunday looking very well indeed & very agreeable.

Ever yrs aff | J D Hooker.

**No doubt a Siphocampylus (convolvulaceus?) of which there are various scandent species⁷

Wednesday no improvement in the Baby.

Footnotes

1

The date is established by the written date and the postscripts: in 1867, 27 March was a Wednesday.

2

In his letter to Hooker of 24 [March 1867], CD had reported receiving from Fritz Müller seeds of several plants, including a climbing Lobelia and another kind that grew to ten feet in height (see below, n. 7); he had wondered whether it was worth his offering these and other seeds and plants to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

3

See letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 [March 1867] and n. 4.

4

Hooker’s youngest child was Reginald Hawthorn Hooker, who had been born on 12 January 1867.

5

Hooker previously told CD he was going to Paris at the end of March (see letter from J. D. Hooker, 14 March 1867 and n. 6).

6

William Erasmus Darwin.

7

Siphocampylus, like Lobelia, belongs to the subfamily Lobelioideae of the family Campanulaceae (Mabberley 1997).