The Royal Society

[[1]]

THE ROYAL SOCIETY,

BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON. W.

Kew

Feb 8/[18]77.

My dear Gray,

I have not as yet even wished you a happy new year and many of them -- but like Martha I am "troubled with much serving". Now too I have a new edition of my Students Brit[ish] Flora on hand, anent which nothing strikes me as[word crossed out,illeg.] so curious asthe contrast with your Manual in respect of the limits of species. Will you even be bothered with the subspecies and varieties that drive me frantic, in my view are not wirth[sic] the time they take to elucidate.

What I wish now to consult you

[[2]] about is the position of Gymnosperms, whether to make of them a subclass of Dicotyledons, or a group equal to all other Phaenogams[sic]: i.e. should it be

1 Monocot[yledons]

2 Dicot[yledons]

& Angiosp[erms]

Gymnosp[erms]

or Phaenogams

1. Angiosperms

Monocot[yledons]

Dicot[yledons]

2 Gymnmosperms

I see that you and Decaisne*1, and (in Decaisne[?] and [illeg.]) I have adopted the first course, & I still incline to it. Oliver is disposed to go in for the 2nd with [William Turner Thiselton] Dyer. No one could weigh the evidence on both sides so well as you could. Much should depend on the structureof Gnetumembryo -- [illeg. crossed out] -- sacs&c; I think Gnetumis quite overlookedbythe physiologies in

[[3]] removinggymnosperm from Dicot[yledon]sI have just sent to pressthecorrectedPrimer, a work which has cost me immense labor. I feelterriblythe want of that facilityfor writing such a book as Lecturingwould have given me.

I was very busy both at Garden R[oyal] S[ociety] -- you will to rejoiceto hear that I am most comfortable at home. My wife has fallen at once into my ways that of the house, and there has been no hitch of any kind. To the children she is most attentive most affectionately considerate, to myself all I could expect,

[[4]] (high as my expectations were) or indeed even have hoped to get.

[illeg. word crossed out] I cannot help casting lingering looks behind feeling profoundly melancholy at times -- but nothing can be brighter than my visible future, little as I now dare trust to it.

My belongings are all well -- Mrs Lombe*2is less suffering from neuralgia melancholy -- but looks very haggard. Bentham is wonderfully well. Oliver is about to recommence the African Flora. Moore[?] is busy at the grasses.Can Sargent get me a good clump of your Southern Bamboo send it in damp earth in a box? With affectionateregardsto Mrs Gray I am dear Gray | y[ou]rs J D Hooker [signature]

ENDNOTES

1. Joseph Decaisne, French botanist, 1807--1882

2. Probably Mrs Evans--Lombe, the married name of Hooker's sister Elizabeth Hooker.

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