Letter from Jos. D. Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] to George Maw

Information

Scope & content: Written from Royal Gardens, Kew. Manuscript

He owes Maw for two interesting letters and a splendid lot of bulbs from Spain; he is delighted with Layard’s [Austen Henry Layard, envoy extraordinary to Madrid, ambassador at Constantinople] activity, and will mention it when he next writes to him; Layard is currently in Venice [Italy]; their lily bed has disappointed them all and Smith [John Smith, curator at Kew] is disheartened by Elwes’ [Henry John Elwes, botanist] remarks on its failure; he thanks Maw for the offer of orchids, and asks to see the flowers as they can name them for him whether they keep them or not; it is wretched weather, and ‘many a poor fool is deprived of his Whitsunday spending’; the International Exhibition of Scientific Instruments has created a lot of work for him, and they now propose to create a ‘Musée des Arts et Métiers’, for which he will attend a meeting on Thursday

Credit Line: Courtesy of David Symonds Hooker / The Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker / RHS Lindley Collections