354 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEBS, 188G-1897 



A request for the reference in Erasmus Darwin's * Botanic 

 Garden ' found him away from home at Norwich, but he pro- 

 mised to look it up on his return. * If I am not dreaming, 

 my father used to quote it in his lecture when treating on 

 Nymphaeaceae.' 



Sunningdale : May 1894. 



My dear Darwin, — I have found the passage. It 

 refers to the Nelumbium alone, which is the central figure 

 in the plates. It is in the ' Loves of the Plants,' Canto iv, 

 line 345, — but is so pompous and vapid that I doubt your 

 using it. My father used to interest his students vastly 

 by quoting passages applicable to the plants he lectured 

 on from the Poets, and I well remember the first few lines 

 of that on the Nelumbium. I thought that Darwin had 

 also portrayed the common Waterlily, but I cannot find the 

 passage. Ever affectionately yours, 



J. D. Hooker. 



Next year this china appropriately returned to the pos- 

 session of the Darwin family. 



April 18, 1895. 



My dear Darwin, — I have met with a disaster in a 

 terrible fire on the Common having got into my grounds, 

 and done a deal of damage, including the destruction of 

 my fine holly hedge, several hundreds of yards long. To 

 meet the expense of renewing this and repairs of all sorts, 

 I am going to sell some of my Wedgwoods, and should 

 you care to have your grandfather's breakfast and dessert 

 services, you might find it worth while to take Eathbone's 

 valuation, or make an offer yourself. 



. . . 22nd. I should not like them to go anywhere but 

 back to the family. I am very fond of them, but I have 

 no room to display them, and the Dessert service is too 

 gorgeous to be quite shut up as it is now. 



The purchase made, 5 it is quite a relief to me,' he tells 

 his friend, ' to feel that the crockery is going back to where 

 it should have gone by rights.' It went, but some of it soon 



