TO 
JOHN BALL, ESQ, M.A., F.RS., F.LS,, 
&e., &C. 
My pear Batt, 
As one who has laid both Botanists and Horticul- 
turists under lasting obligations by your travels and your 
writings, and especially by your published works on the © 
vegetation of the Alps and of the Atlas, I hope you will 
accept the dedication of a volume of the BoranicaL Maaazinz. 
Allow me at the same time to record my grateful sense of 
the interest you have always shown in the establishment of 
Kew, and of that personal friendship which has known no 
break during many years of active scientific intercourse, 
and many months of foreign travel. 
Believe me, my dear Ball, 
Most sincerely yours, 
JOS. D. HOOKER. 
Royat Garpens, Kew, 
December \st, 1884. 
