To J. D. Hooker [4 June 1866]

My dear Hooker.—

Many thanks for Asa Gray, as I always like to read him.¹ I was very uncomfortable for two days & all the world looked dismal to me, but everything looks brighter again now.—² I knew that you would not care a bit about my omission,³ but I was much vexed at my own stupidity & strange forgetfulness; it seemed to me on that day like softening of the Brain! & I could have improved my own work by considering all your excellent remarks.⁴ Well it is too late— Cordial thanks & farewell— Ask Oliver to do a little favour for me.⁵

C. Darwin

Footnotes

1

Hooker evidently enclosed a letter from Asa Gray with his letter of [2 June 1866]. There is a letter from Gray to Hooker, dated 10 May 1866, in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Asa Gray letters, ff. 411–12).

2

CD had complained of poor health and stomach troubles (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 31 May [1866] and [31 May 1866]).

3

See letter to J. D. Hooker, [2 June 1866] and n. 3.

4

Hooker had supported CD’s transmutation theory in his essay on Arctic flora (J. D. Hooker 1860a).

5

The favour was probably detailed in an enclosure. The enclosure has not been found; see, however, the letter from Daniel Oliver, 9 June 1866.