232 END OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TEEM 



To T. H. Huxley 



[He was about to attend the Dublin meeting of the British 

 Association.] 



Kew : July 30, 1878. 



DEAR HUXLEY, There is a talk of giving me a sub- 

 section of D., which I make no objection to : but I have heard 

 nothing more of it. I shall certainly give no address if I am 

 called upon to act as President in any capacity. I have 

 too long resisted Satan to make it worth the old gentleman's 

 while to tempt me in that line. Ever yours, 



J. D. HOOKER. 

 To Charles Darwin 



July 31, 1878. 



Huxley tells me he will give no address to his section 

 and I applaud his resolution. I think that even he will 

 soon find that the power of giving addresses is exhaustible, 

 and that he will be reduced to a state of nudity the address 

 becoming no dress. I am at my wits' end for a subject 

 for the Anniversary of Eoyal. 



To the Same 



October 4, 1878. 



Ball's and rny Marocco Journals are nearly out, they 

 await a brief Essay from me on the comparison of the Floras 

 of Marocco and the Canaries the differences are marvellous 

 and quite unexpected. There are no islands in the world 

 so near the mainland with such a difference in their vegeta- 

 tion they beat the Galapagos in certain respects, but then 

 the separate islands do not differ much. 



I must clear the American and Marocco works off before 

 I begin my Address : happily the matter of these is in my 

 head. Then I must go to Paris on the 18th to be present 

 at the Prize giving of the Exhibition, which is to be my 

 only duty as a Eoyal Commissioner ! I have shirked every 

 other without exception and cannot have*the impudence to 

 decline this, though I do hate it. 



I am still looking out for a country cottage within easy 

 distance of Kew to retire to on Sundays and perhaps in the 



