From J. D. Hooker [6 or 7 July 1870]1
Royal Gardens Kew
My dear Darwin
Thanks for the names of the Orchid: books; please let me see them when you have arranged your pamphlets 3 mos hence.2
Have you read Claparede?3 it is not so good as I expected it would have been, & is rather windy I think— is it worth translation as an avant courier for the “Origin of Man”?4 if so I would set some one to do it for Nature or some other periodical.—
You & old Brandt are “en lutte” for the Acad: of Sciences. which will be decided I hear on the 15th. or 20th.— What a farce it is!5
I am delighted to hear that you are on the eve of printing—6 I am hard at work on Nepenthes for DC. Prodr:— this genus supports Miquels & Wallace’s view of the identity of Bornean & Sumatran Zoology & the differences of Java from either most marvellously. Who first published on that curious point? I remember old Blume telling me of it in Leyden in 1845. and I think that Miquel has published on it— can you refer me?7
Hodgson has been here for 2 days, & is nettled at you not having alluded in your chapter on dogs to his paper on the Indian dog—8 I told him that I could not doubt but that it was not it’s value that you underrated, but that it illustrated no points in his subject.—
Bastian’s paper in Nature is full of curious matter but eminently unsatisfactory in treatment I think, & poorly written.9
Lyell was here on Tuesday, looking remarkably well— he does not like Bentham’s Address at all— or perhaps only the drift of it. I am so glad you admire it’s care & thought.10
We spent last Sunday at Mr G. Macleays who has taken Pendell Court near Bletchyngly— he is a pleasant & interesting man, & an ardent admirer of his old curmudgeon of a brother— William.11 I ascended to the top of the N. Downs (Eastern continuation of the Reigate range) & was struck with the capping of very fine gravel. I wish I knew more of tertiary geology, but suppose I should only disbelieve— as I do the whole theory of the upper & lower gravel levels of the Somme & Seine &c. I never can believe that existing rivers or river basins capped these hills with thick beds of gravel which represent either sea shores or drainage over great areas & an enormous amount of denudation of some still higher land, than the hill tops themselves—12
Ever your affectionate & ignorant skeptic | J D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bastian, Henry Charlton. 1870. Facts and reasonings concerning the heterogenous evolution of living things. Nature 2: 170–7, 193–201, 219–28.
Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de and Candolle, Alphonse de. 1824–73. Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, sive enumeratio contracta ordinum generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarum, juxta methodi naturalis normas digesta. 19 vols. Paris: Treuttel & Würtz [and others].
Claparède, Edouard. 1870. Remarques à propos de l’ouvrage de M. Alfred Russel Wallace sur la théorie de la sélection naturelle. Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles n.s. 38: 160–89.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Hodgson, Brian Houghton. 1833. Description of the wild dog of the Himalaya. Asiatic Researches 18, pt. 2: 221–37.
Johns, R. J. 1995. Malesia–an introduction. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 12: 52–62.
Keng, Hsuan. 1978. Orders and families of Malayan seed plants. Singapore: University of Singapore Press.
Miquel, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm. 1860. Flora van Nederlandsch Indië. Erste bijvoegsel. Sumatra, zijne plantenwereld en hare voortbrengselen. (Flora Indiae Batavae. Supplementum primum. Prodromus florae Sumatranae.) Amsterdam: C. G. van der Post. Utrecht: C. van der Post Jr.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Zollinger, Heinrich. 1857. Over het begrip en den omvang eener flora Malesiana. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlansch Indië 13: 293–322.
Summary
Has CD read E. Claparède ["Remarques à propos de l’ouvrage de M. Alfred Russel Wallace sur la théorie de la sélection naturelle", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 38 (1870): 160–89]? Is it worth translating?
CD and J.-F. de Brandt are "en lutte for Ac. of Sc. [France]. What a farce it is".
His work on Nepenthes supports Miquel’s and Wallace’s view of the zoology of Borneo and Sumatra.
Brian Hodgson on dogs.
H. C. Bastian’s book [The modes of origin of lowest organisms (1871)] unsatisfactory.
Lyell does not share CD’s view of Bentham’s address.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7267
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 103: 55–56
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7267,” accessed on 23 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7267.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18