232 END OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM 



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 Royal. 



To the Same 



October 4, 1878. 



Ball's and my 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 Royal 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 



