450 THE UNFINISHED BOOK. [1857. 



you say about the little direct influence of climate; and I 

 have just alluded to the hairiness of Alpine plants as an ex- 

 ception. The odoriferousness would be a good case for me if 

 I knew of varieties being more odoriferous in dry habitats. 



I fear that I have looked at the hairiness of Alpine plants 

 as so generally acknowledged that I have not marked pas- 

 sages, so as at all to see what kind of evidence authors ad- 

 vance. I must confess, the other day, when I asked Falconer, 

 whether he knew of individual plants losing or acquiring hairi- 

 ness when transported, he did not. But now this second^ my 

 memory flashes on me, and I am certain I have somewhere 

 got marked a case of hairy plants from the Pyrenees losing 

 hairs when cultivated at Montpellier. Shall you think me 

 very impudent if I tell you that I have sometimes thought 

 that (quite independently of the present case), you are a little 

 too hard on bad observers ; that a remark made by a bad 

 observer cannot be right ; an observer who deserves to be 

 damned you would utterly damn. I feel entire deference 

 to any remark you make out of your own head ; but when in 

 opposition to some poor devil, I somehow involuntarily feel 

 not quite so much, but yet much deference for your opinion, 

 I do not know in the least whether there is any truth in this 

 my criticism against you, but I have often thought I would 

 tell you it. 



I am really very much obliged for your letter, for, though 

 I intended to put only one sentence and that vaguely, I should 

 probably have put that much too strongly. 



Ever, my dear Hooker, yours most truly, 



C. Darwin. 



P. S. This note, as you see, has not anything requiring an 

 answer. 



The distribution of fresh-water molluscs has been a horrid 

 incubus to me, but I think I know my way now ; when 

 first hatched they are very active, and I have had thirty 

 or forty crawl on a dead duck's foot ; and they cannot be 

 jerked off, and will live fifteen and even twenty-four hours 

 out of water. 



