"I have sent my paper on dimorphism in Primula to the Linn. Soc. I shall go up and read it whenever it comes on; I hope you may be able to attend, for I do not suppose many will care a penny for the subject."
With regard to the reading of the paper (on November 21st), he wrote to the same friend:—
"I by no means thought that I produced a "tremendous effect" in the Linn. Soc., but by Jove the Linn. Soc. produced a tremendous effect on me, for I could not get out of bed till late next evening, so that I just crawled home. I fear I must give up trying to read any paper or speak; it is a horrid bore, I can do nothing like other people."
To Dr. Gray he wrote, (December 1861):—
"You may rely on it, I will send you a copy of my Primula paper as soon as I can get one; but I believe it will not be printed till April 1st, and therefore after my Orchid Book. I care more for your and Hooker's opinion than for that of all the rest of the world, and for Lyell's on geological points. Bentham and Hooker thought well of my paper when read; but no one can judge of evidence by merely hearing a paper."
The work on Primula was the means of bringing my father in contact with the late Mr. John Scott, then working as a gardener in the Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh,—an employment which he seems to have chosen in order to gratify his passion for natural history. He wrote one or two excellent botanical papers, and ultimately obtained a post in India. (While in India he made some admirable observations on expression for my father.) He died in 1880.
A few phrases may be quoted from letters to Sir J.D. Hooker, showing my father's estimate of Scott:—
"If you know, do please tell me who is John Scott of the Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh; I have been corresponding largely with him; he is no common man."
"If he had leisure he would make a wonderful observer; to my judgment I have come across no one like him."
"He has interested me strangely, and I have formed a very high opinion of his intellect. I hope he will accept pecuniary assistance from me; but he has hitherto refused." (He ultimately succeeded in being allowed to pay for Mr. Scott's passage to India.)