1 85 3.] NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 41 



An ' Oriental Naturalist' with lots of imagination and not 

 too much regard to facts, is just the man to discuss species ! 

 I think your title of c A Journal of a Naturalist in the East ' 

 very good ; but whether " in the Himalaya " would not be 

 better, I have doubted, for the East sounds rather vague. . . . 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



[I853-] 



MY DEAR HOOKER, I have no remarks at all worth 

 sending you, nor, indeed, was it likely that I should, con- 

 sidering how perfect and elaborated an essay it is.* As far 

 as my judgment goes, it is the most important discussion 

 on the points in question ever published. I can say no more. 

 I agree with almost everything you say ; but I require much 

 time to digest an essay of such quality. It almost made me 

 gloomy, partly from feeling I could not answer some points 

 which theoretically I should have liked to have been different, 

 and partly from seeing so far better done than I could have 

 done, discussions on some points which I had intended to 

 have taken up. ... 



I much enjoyed the slaps you have given to the provincial 

 species-mongers. I wish I could have been of the slightest 

 use : I have been deeply interested by the whole essay, and 

 congratulate you on having produced a memoir which I 

 believe will be memorable. I was deep in it when your 

 most considerate note arrived, begging me not to hurry. I 

 thank Mrs. Hooker and yourself most sincerely for your wish 

 to see me. I will not let another summer pass without 

 seeing you at Kew, for indeed I should enjoy it much. . . . 



You do me really more honour than I have any claim to, 

 putting me in after Lyell on ups and downs. In a year 

 or two's time, when I shall be at my species book (if I do 



* 'New Zealand Flora,' 1853. 



