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

Information

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

He should have congratulated Maw on his return and success, thanked him for his two letters and the Muscari and croci, and asked him who they owe for the dried plants; Maw has a splendid lot of things; Baker [John Gilbert Baker, botanist, keeper of the Kew Herbarium] says that the autumnal Muscari is Muscari parviflorum, and has a note that Crocus suworowianus [Crocus kotschyanus suworowianus] is the same as Crocus vallicola; he has told Smith [John Smith, curator at Kew] to send the carpetanus [Crocus carpetanus]; he asks Maw if he saw their new crocus beds when he was at Kew; he is getting a frame to stand over them on legs so there will not be a lateral enclosure; he does not like frames as they are left open in storms and the plants are soaked, and are as often closed in warm weather, overheating the plants; a frame with no sides, raised two feet above the plants, could be left in place during the growing and flowering seasons and removed afterwards or in fine weather; he is ‘in agony’ over his Royal Society anniversary address; the little Worcester is mended and the pair look charming

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