CHAPTER X 



BOTANY 



I. Miscellaneous. — II. Melastomacece. — III. Correspondence with 



John Scott. 



I. Miscellaneous, i 843-1 862, 

 Letter 575 To William Jackson Hooker. 1 



Down, March 12th [1843]. 

 . . . When you next write to your son, will you please 

 remember me kindly to him and give him my best thanks 

 for his note ? I had the pleasure yesterday of reading a 

 letter from him to Mr. Lyell of Kinnordy, full of the most 

 interesting details and descriptions, and written (if I may 

 be permitted to make such a criticism) in a particularly 

 agreeable style. It leads me anxiously to hope, even more 

 than I did before, that he will publish some separate natural 

 history journal, and not allow (if it can be avoided) his 

 materials to be merged in another work. I am very glad 

 to hear you talk of inducing your son to publish an Antarctic 

 Flora. I have long felt much curiosity for some discussion 

 on the general character of the flora of Tierra del Fuego, 

 that part of the globe farthest removed in latitude from us. 

 How interesting will be a strict comparison between the 

 plants of these regions and of Scotland or Shetland. I am 



1 Sir William Jackson Hooker (1 785-1 865) was called to the Chair of 



Botany at Glasgow in 1820, where by his success as a teacher he raised 



the annual fees from £bo to £700. In 1841 he became Director of the 



Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which under his administration increased 



enormously in activity and importance. His private Herbarium, said to 



be " by far the richest ever accumulated in one man's lifetime," formed the 



nucleus of the present collection. He produced, as author or editor, about 



a hundred volumes devoted to Botany {Diet, of Nat. Biog.). 



242 



