To J. D. Hooker 15 January [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan 15th
My dear Hooker.
I have been tremendously interested by your letter, which shall be kept strictly private. By Jove how I do hope you will beat Galton.—2 If he retires, I shd think there ought to be a public dinner to celebrate the event. And on your tombstone there ought to be engraved “the conqueror of Ayrton & Galton”.—3 I do hope that this affair will end well, as it looks now that you will get an assistant Secy, & then your labour will not be so severe. It really looks as if Farrer had done a right good turn.4
I will return pamphlet when looked at.—5
I am slaving away solely at making detestably bad English a very little less bad.—6
I have just put Aldrovanda verticillata of Roxburgh, received from Dr King, to soak, & shall see tomorrow or next day whether the leaves differ.—7 I am getting sick of insectivorous plants; but Genlisea has interested us greatly. All Utricularias in all parts of the world catch lots of creatures.8
Ever your affect | C. Darwin
P.S. Many thanks for Pamphlets, I—have been glad to glance at the German one, on grounds of priority. The Bull. Bot. Soc. of France9 must have been sent by mistake.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Roxburgh, William. 1820–4. Flora Indica; or descriptions of Indian plants … to which are added descriptions of plants more recently discovered by Nathaniel Wallich. Edited by William Carey. 2 vols. Serampore: Mission Press.
Roxburgh, William. 1832. Flora Indica; or descriptions of Indian plants. 3 vols. Serampore: W. Thacker and Co., Calcutta. Parbury, Allen and Co., London.
Summary
Hopes JDH will beat Sir Douglas Galton.
Continues to work on insectivorous plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9818
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 369–71
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9818,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9818.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23