76 1860-1865 : PERSONAL 



calls Falconer to account afterwards, upon which F. is griev- 

 ously put out at finding out what he has done and forthwith 

 goes and writes a letter to Sabine on the subject. May the 

 Lord have mercy on S. is all I can say ; for F. will have 

 none. This is the story as I believe Busk to have told it 

 to me yesterday ; but as it has thus passed through two 

 hands I do not doubt it is damaged in the process, so pray 

 take it for no more than it is worth. 



Moreover, having been asked to supply a statement as to 

 Darwin's botanical discoveries, Hooker, on reading Sabine's 

 complete address, which he found ' very good on the whole,' 

 expressed himself to his friend as 



indignant and disgusted at the mutilation and emasculation 

 of what I wrote especially about Lythrum and Linum, 1 

 which he has made nonsense of, and the use your obser- 

 vations will be in interpreting no end of phenomena not 

 yet guessed at. (January 1, 1865.) 



He has certainly not praised you too much as to your 

 Botany, but I -do suppose that your merits as a Geologist 

 and Zoologist are AUDACIOUSLY EXAGGERATED there then ! 



A year or so later, Sir Charles Lyell was desirous that the 

 same recognition for his great scientific labours should be 

 given to Hooker. The latter, however, was by no means of 

 this mind, and frankly tells Darwin : 



After his funny and not-at-all-agreeable-to-me fashion of 

 telling me all about it, of course I must not tell him so, but 

 it is God's truth, that not only shall I never think I deserve 

 it if I get it, but that if I did deserve it, it would be far too 

 dear at the cost of an after-dinner speech. These are things, 

 however, which must take their courses. 



Darwin's rejoinder was emphatic : 



As for thinking that you do not deserve the Copley Medal, 2 

 that I declare is mere insanity. 



1 I.e. the two and threefold relations between the pistil and stamens of 

 certain plants, ensuring cross-fertilisation. 

 ' He received it in 1887. 



