CHAPTER XXIII 



LETTEKS TO DABWIN, 1843-1859 



IN one of his letters Darwin makes special mention of pre- 

 serving his friend's letters. The answers to scientific questions 

 are detached and placed among the memoranda of that subject ; 

 the other parts are put among his general correspondence, so 

 that it would only be a matter of half an hour to rearrange 

 them in case of need. In spite of his care, however, a large 

 number of the earlier letters from Hooker have disappeared 

 wholly or in part. From the remainder I give a selection to 

 illustrate their correspondence before the appearance of the 

 ' Origin.' 



Darwin's first letter to Hooker (December 1843) is printed 

 in the ' Life of Charles Darwin,' ii. 21. He had then sent his 

 Galapagos collections to Hooker through Henslow, who had 

 had them in keeping (see ' More Letters of Charles Darwin,' 

 i. 400) ; the next in sequence, which answers the following 

 of Hooker's, is given in 'More Letters of Charles Darwin,' 

 i. 39. 



J. D. Hooker to C. Darwin 



December 1843. 



The Galapagos plants are far more extensive in number 

 of species than I could have supposed, and are the foundation 

 of an excellent Flora of that group : Mr. Henslow has sent 

 with them those of Macrae which hardly differ from yours. 

 I was quite prepared to see the extraordinary difference 

 between the plants of the separate Islands from your 

 Journal, a most strange fact, and one which quite overturns 

 all our preconceived notions of species radiating from a 



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