88 EVOLUTION [CHAP. II 



Letter 43 From this I conclude, whether there be many or few 

 genera in an order, the number of species in a genus is not 

 much affected ; but perhaps when [there is] only one genus 

 in an order it will be affected, and this will depend whether 

 the [genus] Erythroxyhn be made a family of. 



Letter 44 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, April 8th [i 856]. 



I have been particularly glad to get your splendid eloge of 



Lindley. His name has been lately passing through my head, 



and I had hoped that Miers would have proposed him for the 



Royal medal. I most entirely agree that the Copley 1 is more 



appropriate, and I daresay he would not have valued the 



Royal. From skimming through many botanical books, and 



from often consulting the Vegetable Kingdom, I had (ignorant 



as I am) formed the highest opinion of his claims as a botanist. 



If Sharpey will stick up strong for him, we should have some 



chance ; but the natural sciences are but feebly represented 



in the Council. Sir P. Egerton, 2 I daresay, would be strong 



for him. You know Bell is out. Now, my only doubt is, and 



I hope that you will consider this, that the natural sciences 



being weak on the Council, and (I fancy) the most powerful 



man in the Council, Col. S [abine], being strong against 



Lindley, whether we should have any chance of succeeding. 



It would be so easy to name some eminent man whose name 



would be well known to all the physicists. Would Lindley 



hear of and dislike being proposed for the Copley and not 



succeeding ? Would it not be better on this view to propose 



him for the Royal ? Do think of this. Moreover, if Lindley 



is not proposed for the Royal, I fear both Royal medals 



would go [to] physicists ; for I, for one, should not like to 



propose another zoologist, though Hancock would be a very 



good man, and I fancy there would be a feeling against medals 



to two botanists. But for whatever Lindley is proposed, I will 



do my best. We will talk this over here. 



1 The late Professor Lindley never attained the honour of the Copley 

 medal. The Royal medal was awarded to him in 1857. 



3 Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton (i 806-81) devoted himself to 

 the study of fossil fishes, and published several memoirs on his collection, 

 which was acquired by the British Museum. 



