1 85 3.] ROYAL SOCIETY'S MEDAL. 389 



a very kind one, somehow, I cared very little indeed for the 

 announcement it contained. I then opened yours, and such 

 is the effect of warmth, friendship, and kindness from one 

 that is loved, that the very same fact, told as you told it, 

 made me glow with pleasure till my very heart throbbed. 

 Believe me, I shall not soon forget the pleasure of your letter. 

 Such hearty, affectionate sympathy is worth more than all 

 the medals that ever were or will be coined. Again, my dear 

 Hooker, I thank you. I hope Lindley * will never hear that he 

 was a competitor against me ; for really it is almost ridiculous 

 (of course you would never repeat that I said this, for it 

 would be thought by others, though not, I believe, by you, 

 to be affectation) his not having the medal long before me ; 

 I must feel sure that you did quite right to propose him ; and 

 what a good, dear, kind fellow you are, nevertheless, to rejoice 

 in this honour being bestowed on me. 



What pleasure I have felt on the occasion, I owe almost 

 entirely to you. 



Farewell, my dear Hooker, yours affectionately, 



C. DARWIN. 



* John Lindley (b. 1799, d. 1865) best known being perhaps his 



was the son of a nurseryman near ' Vegetable Kingdom,' published in 



Norwich, through whose failure in 1846. His influence in helping to 



business he was thrown at the age introduce the natural system of 



of twenty on his own resources, classification was considerable and 



He was befriended by Sir W. he brought " all the weight of his 



Hooker, and employed as assistant teaching and all the force of his 



librarian by Sir J. Banks. He controversial powers to support it," 



seems to have had enormous ca- as against the Linnean system uni- 



pacity of work, and is said to have versally taught in the earlier part 



translated Richard's 'Analyse du of his career. Sachs points out 



Fruit' at one sitting of two days (Geschichte der Botanik, 1875, p. 



and three nights. He became As- 161), that though Lindley adopted 



sistant-Secretary to the Horticul- in the main a sound classification 



tural Society, and in 1829 was of plants, he only did so by aban- 



appointed Professor of Botany at doning his own theoretical principle 



University College, a post which that the physiological importance 



he held for upwards of thirty years, of an organ is a measure of its 



His writings are numerous : the classificatory value. 



2 D 2 



