1846.] BOTANY. 313 



milk and water. Have you read ' Cosmos * yet ? The Eng- 

 lish translation is wretched, and the semi-metaphysico-politico 

 descriptions in the first part are barely intelligible ; but I 

 think the volcanic discussion well worth your attention, it has 

 astonished me by its vigour and information. I grieve to find 

 Humboldt an adorer of Von Buch, with his classification of 

 volcanos, craters of elevation, &c., &c., and carbonic acid gas 

 atmosphere. He is indeed a wonderful man. 



I hope to get home in a fortnight and stick to my weary- 

 ful South America till I finish it. I shall be very anxious to 

 hear how you get on from the Horners, but you must not 

 think of wasting your time by writing to me. We shall miss, 

 indeed, your visits to Down, and I shall feel a lost man 

 in London without my morning " house of call " at Hart 

 Street. . . . 



Believe me, my dear Lyell, ever yours, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, Farnborough, Kent, 



Thursday, September, 1846. 



My dear Hooker, — I hope this letter will catch you at 

 Clifton, but I have been prevented writing by being unwell, 

 and having had the Horners here as visitors, which, with my 

 abominable press-work, has fully occupied my time. It is, 

 indeed, a long time since we wrote to each other ; though, I 

 beg to tell you, that I wrote last, but what about I cannot 

 remember, except, I know, it was after reading your last 

 numbers,* and I sent you a uniquely laudatory epistle, con- 

 sidering it was from a man who hardly knows a Daisy from 

 a Dandelion to a professed Botanist. . . . 



I cannot remember what papers have given me the im- 

 pression, but I have that, which you state to be the case, 

 firmly fixed on my mind, namely, the little chemical impor- 

 tance of the soil to its vegetation. What a strong fact it is, 



* Sir J. D. Hooker's Antarctic Botany. 

 15 



