[[1]]
Darjeeling
March 27. 1849 *1
My dear Father
Yours of Feb[ruar]y 7th has just arrived it having followed me up & down the hills
many thanks for it. You are very anxious about seeds, & I think I have done my best
to give satisfaction -- I staid[sic] at 13000ft very much on purpose to collect there of
the Rhododendrons & with cold fingers it is not very easy at the ripening season
Dec[embe]r[?] to collect them from the scattered twigs, generally out of reach. I did
not shell them & perhaps am wrong in not so doing but I thought they took care of
themselves throughout winter in the pods & hence rather took care to keep them in
the latter. Next season I will leave word to have the accessable[sic] species collected
again, but those are the 3 or 4 occurring below 5000 ft., you will not get the Lepchas
to go alone to 12000, at winter time, where alone the majority grow, & on mts far
from habitation. Comparatively few individuals fruit. In the other letter by this mail I
enclose the seeds of a 13th species (the great white macrophyllum) & send a larger packet
overland. -- Macrae has this moment informed me that the seeds arrived only 1 day
too late for the last mail, they will go by the 8th & by the following
[[2]] a small collection of all the species. It is easy collecting acorns -- I had many
bushels which Hodgson looked over during my absence & though within a week he
has to throw away all but a peck -- those I further reduced & selected & have sent
seeds of nearly all the kinds as also of the chestnuts. I have live seedlings of some
Rhododendrons & a lovely winter flowering stemless Primula, but am out of tin
boxes; as soon as these arrive I will send them straight to Kew. as also a collection
of drawings of the Palms I sent you seeds of a Calamus -- & 2 other genera, the
Caryota is not known to flower, & the other 3 Calami rarely, the seeds of one are
now ripening, Wallichi Chamaerops is not found here & Hodgson never saw it but in
gardens in Nepal -- you ask W[allich]. about this. I have found another sp. of Tree
fern at the foot of the hills & procured 3 trunks for you, one dichotomous & plenty of
specimens also Beaumontia fully in flower, for the seed of which I will look out, but it
only grows in very malarious places.
Of Pines I only got cones of A. Brunoniana (not of webbiana & the Larch, Juniper &
Taxus & have sent all I could get of the above. It is much easier to get Pines in the
N[orth]. W[est]. where these grow near to European & other habitations -- here you
must go far to see the trees at all. *2
[[3]] Tell Wallich that Griffiths certainly never was at Darjeeling, though a Dr Griffiths
was. McLelland was busy copying the list of Griffith's plants for distribution, with the
specimens, as you have printed in my letter. I am tolerably acquainted with As[iatic].
Soc[iety]. Journal & it took no small labor to be so & it is impossible I should think
that any paper by G[riffith]. on Darj[eeling].should have escaped me. I collected
some fruit for you at Calcutta *3 gardens when there, I will speak to Falconer about
these & Palm stems on my his return. I have only now got cross cut saws for timber
cutting, of Mr Muller's, & will get you fine diameter slabs of oaks, chestnut, magnolia,
cherry & walnut &c.
I have been reading Broomfields letters in the L[ondon]. J[ournal]. B[otany]. with
great interest & pleasure & profit, & so is Hodgson -- I do hope the L[ondon].
J[ournal]. B[otany]. will go on & wish that my bad spirit Reeves was content to keep
my "Journal" in its proper place. The Calcutta press will take no notice of it, on
account of the Athenaeum review, which is widely circulated, & the said press have
always spoken most flatteringly of me. For my part I am too great a coxcomb to care
a rush for the Athenaeum review but after all you pains I was sorry for it.
[[4]] I wonder how the 1/ numbers will look, this is nicely got up & very correctly
printed a wonderful improvement on Baillieu.
You ask how Ld. Aucklands death will affect my future prospects, I cannot form the
smallest sure idea. The Borneo app[ointment]t was made for me, & at a time when
the Labuan colony promised splendidly, & the Navy Estimates were not called in
question. Now Labuan is at a discount, if the Indian press speaks true, & Lord John
has promised extensive reductions in the Navy Estimates. My position was to be that
of Supernumerary Acting Surgeon to do duty as Naturalist in Borneo. -- the pay of
acting surgeon & £300 a year for expenses. -- In the measures for reduction this I
must come prominently before the Commissioners 1st as Supreme Surgeon where
my servings are not wanted as Surgeon future receiver of £300 a year here 'dies':-Under all these circumstances I may be swept off or at only have the 300 docked: &
the my services as Naturalist dispensed with: in the latter case I still stand as "acting
Surgeon on the Meanders books" & shall be drafted by the Admiral into some ship
for duty -- which would not suit my [views] at all.
[[5]] it would be well therefore that you had such an introduction to Sir F Baring as
would induce him to say at once whether my situation is likely to be meddled with on
the coming reduction of the Navy Estimates; for if so all my present prospects are
changed. Please be particular as to my position "acting surgeon, supernum[erary] on
Meanders' books, to explore Nat[ural]. Hist[ory] of Borneo" -- My leave from the
Admiralty Expires in Nov[embe]r. but my pay from the W[oods].&.F[orests]. was not
received till end of January & of course they expect 2 years service from that date,
though I have been 18 months on one years salary except for the additional £ 100
you generously added.
Supposing the admiralty do cut me off, either as acting Surgeon or as receiver of
£300 at Borneo; what is to be done? -- splendid as the vegetation is, it is a bad
climate for a collector & I would have gone further for Lord Auckland than for any one
else. Hodgson was on the point of writing to Col. Sykes by this mail begging him to
consider the propriety of delaying the distribution of the E[ast]. I[ndia]. C[ompany].
things till my own & Thomsons return & then employing us in that work & in drawing
up a Flora of the Himal. This would have been a capital thing but it is too late now.
The great white Rhododendron is this this moment brought to me just burst into
flower (macrophyllum). I am sorry I could send no better figure, but really the fault
was not mine -- it did not flower well last year & is the earliest of all, I got a single
flower or small, head, in May last, it was small & all white. The clusters now come in
are incomparably larger, & the flowers too -- than I had any idea of -- as large as a
small childs head -- far the biggest capitula of any & fl[owers]. as large as Dalhousiae - colour white 3 lobed with faint yellow or pink tinge -- glo & a deep purple spot at base of
corolla -- stamens 14 chestnut brown. Stigma bright flesh colour. Foliage a brilliant
green above glossy; below white silvery or very pale pinkish tinge. The Pine I
supposed new I have this minute found in the 1d Cyclop[edia]; is Ab[ies]. Brunoniana,
Wall. the description is very good, both of tree & uses. The Teta is I doubt not
Bentham's Picrorhiza. The Jatamansi undoubtedly the Valeriana when fresh dried it
smelt exactly like Patchouli but not so strong -- it is very valuable -- my new Serv[an]t
Hoffman is very inferior to Clamanze & is intolerably dull, so that I am constantly
blowing him up still he is a good careful man with the plants & I believe honest &
civil, but it is a great bore to have so many things utterly ruined in travelling in a day
or two, which were uninjured up to his being valet. I have to look after coolies, trunks
&c with this man.
[[6]] Wight has just written me a long a very kind & improved style of letter, sending
me his other books & begging me not to think of any further return than the
Flora Antarct[ica]., which I hope Reeves has sent -- he is sending you seeds -- is
working up Utricularia, 22 species & intends putting them near Cyrtand[ra]. Gardner I
heard from yesterday. I wish you would write to Jenkins no man in India could render
your museum greater service. I have done so & begged him to lay £10 or £20 for me
in getting things, but he is sore I think at his last collections not having been
acknowledged. *4 So Balfour has published a Flora of the Bass rock -- Mons
parturiens? I have also written by this mail to Forbes Wallich Bentham & Brown, has
the latter said any thing about the coal fossil Egrey? I have just made up a parcel of
dried Rhododendrons, for you to go overland they will be in Calcutta before next mail
leaves -- there are I take it 20 good species. I see Reeves advertises the book for 1
Feb[ruar]y what is he in such an e
xtravagant hurry about? Jenkins has just heard of Lobbs arrival & asked who he is. I
will write & explain. I almost wish Lobb were here & yet along the river is the best
place for him who wants to be sending things constantly down to Calcutta. I am
drawing up a sketch of the coniferous vegetation of E[ast] Nepal & Sikkim partly for
the As[iatic]. Soc[iety]. Journal & for your L[ondon]. J[ournal]. B[otany]. or whatever it
is now called. Thomson is I understand offered the Opium Deputy Agency at Patna
the place which Dr Corbett held when I was there it is worth 1, 200 rupees which is
upwards of £1200 a year O'Shaughnessy had the giving away [of] the app[ointmen]t
for which purpose Sir H. Maddock sent him the list of fitting candidates with Tommy's
name at the bottom. O S[haughnessy]. immediately put it to the top & returned it to
Gov[ernmen]t. I have not heard from Tom a long while. Ever your affect[ionate] son
Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. Annotations written in another hand record that the letter was received on 29 May
and then correct this to 31 May.
2. This paragraph is written in the margin of page 2 which has some damage,
making the text hard to decipher.
3. The city formerly known as Calcutta is now called Kolkata.
4. The address of the recipient appears here as the letter would originally have been
folded in such a way that it formed its own 'envelope'. The address reads: "via
Southampton | Sir W.J. Hooker | R[oya]l Gardens | Kew | London"
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