410 FURTHEK PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC BOTANY 



To Sir D. Morris 



The Beacon, Sidmouth : January 15, 1911. 



I have occupied this forenoon in reading your admirable 

 paper, 1 wo.rd for word, with Lady Hooker participating and 

 pronouncing it to be very able. 



Before commencing I was impressed with the necessity 

 for such a review of the labours of your Department, but 

 failed to grasp the vast extent and multiplicity of the aims 

 to be sought and the amount of almost superhuman know- 

 ledge, experience, energy, tact and endeavour required to 

 cope with the situation. 



Please accept my most hearty congratulations and thanks 

 for your all too appreciative mention of me. How I wish that 

 my father could have been present. As founder of Kew in 

 an economic sense, he was the great originator, and you are 

 the most brilliant of his successors in the tropical field. 



Perhaps to you your greatest reward is the confidence of 

 the Colonial Office. 



Most sincerely yours, 



Jos. D. Hooker. 



1 On ' The Imperial Department of Agriculture in the West Indies,' read 

 before the Royal Colonial Institute, January 10, 1911, and issued in March as 

 No. 75 of ' Colonial Reports — Miscellaneous ' (Cd. 5515). This Department 

 was established by Mr. Chamberlain and placed under Sir D. Morris. Nearly 

 twenty-eight years before (June 13, 1883) he had read a similar paper before the 

 same body : ' Planting Industries in the West Indies.' 



