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l write out my tables and
conclusion, and (when well copied out) I hope you will be so kind as
to read it. I will then put it by and after some months look at it with
fresh eyes. I will briefly work in all your objections and Watson's. I
labour under a great difficulty from feeling sure that, with what very
little systematic work I have done, small genera were more interesting
and therefore more attracted my attention.

One of your remarks I do not see the bearing of under your point of
view--namely, that in monotypic genera "the variation and variability"
are "much more frequently noticed" than in polytypic genera. I hardly
like to ask, but this is the only one of your arguments of which I do
not see the bearing; and I certainly should be very glad to know. I
believe I am the slowest (perhaps the worst) thinker in England; and I
now consequently fully admit the full hostility of Urticaceae, which I
will give in my tables.

I will make no remarks on your objections, as I do hope you will read my
MS., which will not cost you much trouble when fairly copied out. From
my own experience, I hardly believe that the most sagacious observers,
without counting, could have predicted whether there were more or fewer
recorded varieties in large or small genera; for I found, when actually
making the list, that I could never strike a balance in my mind,--a good
many varieties occurring together, in small or in large genera, always
threw me off the balance...

P.S.--I have just thought that your remark about the much variation of
monotypic genera was to show me that even in these, the smallest genera,
there was much variability. If this be so, then do not answer; and I
will so understand it.

LETTER 62. TO J.D. HOOKER. February 23rd [1858].

Will you think of some of the largest genera with which you are well
acquainted, and then suppose 4/5 of the species utterly destroyed and
unknown in the sections (as it were) as much as possible in the centre
of such great genera. Then would the remaining 1/5 of the species,
forming a few sections, be, according to the general practice of average
good Botanists, ranked as distinct genera? Of course they would in that
case be closely related genera. The question, in fact, is, are all the
species in a gigantic genus kept together in that genus, because they
are really so very closely similar as to be inseparable? or is it
because no chasms or boundaries can be drawn separating the many
species? The question might have been put for Orders.

LETTER 63. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, February 9th [1858].

I should be very much obliged for your opinion on the enclosed. You may
remember in the three first volumes tabulated, all orders went right
except Labiatae. By the way, if by any extraordinary chance you have
not thrown away the scrap of paper with former results, I wish you would
return it, for I have lost my copy, and I shall have all the division
to do again; but DO NOT hunt for it, for in any case I should have gone
over the calculation again.

Now I have done the three other volumes. You will see that all species
in the six volumes together go right, and likewise all orders in the
three last volumes, except Verbenaceae. Is not Verbenaceae very closely
allied to Labiatae? If so, one would think that it was not mere chance,
this coincidence. The species in Labiatae and Verbenaceae together
are between 1/5 and 1/6 of all the species (15,645), which I have now
tabulated.

Now, bearing in mind the many local Floras which I have tabulated
(belting the whole northern hemisphere), and considering that they (and
authors of D.C. Prodromus) would probably take different degrees of care
in recording varieties, and the genera would be divided on different
principles by different men, etc., I am much surprised at the uniformity
of the result, and I am satisfied that there must be truth in the rule
that the small genera vary less than the large. What do you think?
Hypothetically I can conjecture how the Labiatae might fail--namely, if
some small divisions of the Order were now coming into importance in the
world and varying much and making species. This makes me want to
know whether you could divide the Labiatae into a few great natural
divisions, and then I would tabulate them separately as sub-orders. I
see Lindley makes so many divisions that there would not be enough in
each for an average. I send the table of the Labiatae for the chance
of your being able to do this for me. You might draw oblique lines
including and separating both large and small genera. I have also
divided all the species into two equal masses, and my rule holds good
for all the species in a mass in the six volumes; but it fails
in several (four) large Orders--viz. Labiatae, Scrophulariaceae,
Acanthaceae, and Proteaceae. But, then, when the species are divided
into two almost exactly equal divisions, the divisions with large genera
are so very few: for instance, in Solanaceae, Solanum balances all
others. In Labiatae seven gigantic genera balance all others (viz. 113),
and in Proteaceae five genera balance all others. Now, according to
my hypothetical notions, I am far from supposing that all genera go on
increasing forever, and therefore I am not surprised at this result,
when the division is so made that only a very few genera are on one
side. But, according to my notions, the sections or sub-genera of the
gigantic genera ought to obey my rule (i.e., supposing a gigantic genus
had come to its maximum, whatever increase was still going on ought to
be going on in the larger sub-genera). Do you think that the sections
of the gigantic genera in D.C. Prodromus are generally NATURAL: i.e.
not founded on mere artificial characters? If you think that they are
generally made as natural as they can be, then I should like very
much to tabulate the sub-genera, considering them for the time as good
genera. In this case, and if you do not think me unreasonable to ask it,
I should be very glad of the loan of Volumes X., XI., XII., and
XIV., which include Acanthaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Labiatae, and
Proteaceae,--that is, the orders which, when divided quite equally, do
not accord with my rule, and in which a very few genera balance all the
others.

I have written you a tremendous long prose.

LETTER 64. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, June 8th [1858].

I am confined to the sofa with boils, so you must let me write in
pencil. You would laugh if you could know how much your note pleased me.
I had the firmest conviction that you would say all my MS. was bosh, and
thank God, you are one of the few men who dare speak the truth. Though I
should not have much cared about throwing away what you have seen, yet
I have been forced to confess to myself that all was much alike, and
if you condemned that you would condemn all my life's work, and that I
confess made me a little low; but I could have borne it, for I have the
conviction that I have honestly done my best. The discussion comes in at
the end of the long chapter on vari
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