Darwin-Hooker Letters : Letter from Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D. on 11 June [1862]

Darwin, C. R.

Darwin-Hooker Letters

Sorry to hear of Mrs Hooker's health and domestic problems. Wishes natural selection had produced neuters who would not flirt or marry. Will be eager to hear Cameroon results. Wishes Hooker would discuss the "mundane glacial period". Still believes it will be "the turning point of all recent geographical distribution". Pollen placed for 65 hours on apparent (Darwin still thinks real) stigma of Leschenaultia has not protruded a vestige of a tube. "Oliver the omniscient" has produced an article in Botanische Zeitung with accurate account of all Darwin saw in Viola. Asa Gray's "red-hot" praise of Orchids [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 138–51].