Royal Botanic Gardens, London, June 12, 1842. On bifolium, 8vo (9 x 7 1/2 in; 229 x 191 mm). Three-page autograph letter, signed by William Jackson Hooker to Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter, in part:

"During the life of the late Col. Mr. John Hunneman, I used to have frequent intelligence through him, of the progress of the “Unio Itineraria,” & I used to have great pleasure in giving the news in my “Botanical Journal”; but I regret to see the volume of last year completed without a single notice of the important labors of this Institution. If Sir, you could, at once, or at a fitting opportunity, communicate some particulars of your travels or of your labors, I shall be very happy to give them circulation in my “London Journal of Botany...I have had, I think, 2 portions of Abyssinian plants;--but I think there is a set of [illegible] plants; three gatherings in Nubia, &c. which I have not received. I do not think I have all the portions of the Georgia-Caucasian plants; nor have I any from the [illegible]. But you have perhaps memorandums of what have been sent...Has nothing been distributed too of Dr. Welwitsch’s Plants from Portugal & the Cape de Verde Islands? I think you, Sir, or a gentleman of your name, went to the above & procured plants different from those of Guthrie. Are they to be purchased? & have they been published anywhere?"

I have often hoped also to see published the Journals of the Travels of some of your very zealous Collectors. Those of Kotschy in Nubia & Schimper in Abyssinia would be particularly interesting. All their plants [would?] be made known to the Botanists of this country: & though I regret being not a German Scholar myself, I would have them translated & published here for the benefit of Botany, & of the Society."

Do you receive fresh seeds of Plants for Botanical Gardens, & perhaps Bulbs? If so what is the price of them? I am as anxious to add to the stores of the Royal Botanic Gardens [as?] [illegible], and many plants which may perhaps well deserve to increase the stock in my Herbarium..." Transmittal folds, few ink stains, two small tears on integral leaf, affecting one letter, paper seal still intact; addressed and postmarked on verso of integral leaf.

A lengthy and informative letter from Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to German botanist Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (1787-1860), concerning the exchange and dissemination of botanical specimens and scientific information between Britain and Continental Europe. Hooker discusses the activities of the Unio Itineraria, the botanical collecting and distribution society associated with Hochstetter and Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel, regretting the lack of recent reports on its activities and offering to publicize news of its expeditions and collections in his newly established London Journal of Botany. He enquires about his subscription and the specimens to which he is entitled, specifically mentioning collections of plants from Abyssinia, Nubia, Portugal, the Cape Verde Islands, and the Caucasus, and discusses the work of such important nineteenth-century plant collectors as Theodor Kotschy, Georg Wilhelm Schimper, and Friedrich Welwitsch.

Hooker expresses particular interest in seeing the journals of these collectors published, noting that their travels would be “particularly interesting,” and offers to have their accounts translated from German and published in England “for the benefit of Botany.” He further enquires about obtaining fresh seeds and bulbs for the Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as specimens for his own herbarium. The letter concludes with praise for Steudel’s botanical reference work and enquiries concerning a new edition of its cryptogamic volume and the most recent catalogue of known species of ferns.

[With:] Hooker, William Jackson. Copy of a Letter Addressed to Dawson Turner...on the Occassion of the Death of the Late Duke of Bedford...Glasgow: George Richardson, 1840. 4to. Hand-colored lithograph frontispiece. Original boards, black morocco lettering-piece gilt on upper cover (spine chipped with losses, scattered stains to covers