[[1]]
Dacca [Dakha]
May 29 1850 *1
My dear father
Thomson & I have got so far upon the route I have detailed to my mother, & here we
are kindly cared for by one of Tom's <Thomas Thomson's> Indian friends.
We have passed no botanizing ground of any consequence, the banks of the rivers
being especially poor in plants, & at this season dreadfully so. Still mainly by Tom's
activity, we have got together some 4 or 500 species of weeds; including however
fruiting branches with leaves of two fine Calamus for Kew.
[[2]] The C. rotang of Roxb[urgh]. [is] a little known palm, & not a Dorjiling
[Darjeeling] one at all -- & the C. fasciculatus. The C. rotang is Roxburgh's, not
Rumphius['s] plant, & even unknown to Martius & Griffiths[.] We only found one
fruiting sp. of each & the seeds far from ripe. The real wild Rose of Bengal, R.
involucrata I also found for the first time on the banks of the Mahanuddy & literally in
as hot a part of India as could be, a more thoroughly tropical plant cannot be, & what
excuse the genus can urge for
[[3]] planting one of its species in such a climate & confining it there, passes my
philosophy. I suppose you have it at Kew if not Falconer can send it from Calcutta
gardens, so I did not collect roots & the plant was barely out of flower.
I sent from Rampore to Calcutta 40 baskets 4 feet long of Orchideae, in wonderfully
fine order so far, & flowering out of the chinks in the baskets. Bell (my friend there (a
friend of Decimus Burtons) was to send them at once on to Calcutta where I doubt
not
[[4]] they will arrive in excellent condition. Many young Rhodo[dendron]. plants went
too. These I had intended to unpack at the foot of the hills & put into a Ward's case,
but could get no soil but marsh sand, & the temp. being 106˚ in the shade I thought it
a needless waste of labor planting already debilitated plants. I therefore sent them to
take their chances with the Orchideae. Many Rhod[odendron]. plants are alive at
Calcutta Gardens, but far more have damped off as was expected, & as Jock Smith's
certainly will if he steams them up at 70°.
[[5]] I would wager to grow any quantity in England in a cool damp frame & rear 9/10
of what sprout. I left lots of seedling Larches at D.[Darjeeling] growing superbly but I
sent home every grain of Rhod[odendron].
My dried collection has all arrived at Calcutta, vast as it is I could not expect that it no
harm would befall it, & good Falconer now writes that wet has got into one box &
soaked two bundles to pulp. As not a drop of rain has fallen this must be some
egregious carelessness of the person in charge of the boxes but I could not get tin, &
I paid £6 for the boxes making for the a part of them only. I heard from
[[6]] Thwaites last mail, who is greatly contented with his position & prospects; &
disappointed only with the state of the gardens, which do not seem to have been of
so garden a character as he expected nor as the public wish. I had heard something
of this before, & that [George] Gardner paid too much attention to the dried plants &
too little to the industrial & ornamental part of the gardens in so much that the
Gov[ernmen]t were recommended to abolish them on his death as useless. Be that
as it may Thwaites asks me whether I approve of his present proceedings toward
[[7]] making the gardens as ornamental & attractive as possible by getting a named
collection of all the Cinghalese plants & by inviting the attention of the public to
distribution of seeds of useful[,] rare & ornamental plants from Europe & India. He
has written to Wight & to Falconer, has given himself up exclusively to the garden
duties & the study of Cinghalese genera & species. Of course I highly approve all
this & my impression is that with his good sense & honesty of character, nothing will
be left wanting. Lord Torrington writes well of him to Byng; but really poor Lord
T[orrington]. is but a base[?] alter all. At the same time
[[8]] that he writes to you saying how that his brother gets great honor for the Sikkim
affair he was telling Colvile[?] he thought Govt. were treating his brother abominably.
Colvile is a friend of Ld T[orrington].'s too & you must not talk of this, which C[olvile].
tells me of privately. I got another sketch of Kinchinjunga [Kanchenjunga] & of all the
range about it from Major Crommelin, which for truth & accuracy beats all Taylers. C.
kindly gave me one small picture for myself, a remarkably faithful one of the scenery
-- Tree fern & Caryota[?] climbing the trees with K[anchen]junga behind both go home the
other you will please get copied & sent as directed to his brother in London.
[[9]] I hope that Fitch if he copies will not do other than copy, as I do not think he can
improve them without my being by -- the distances are so excellently preserved &
the minute features of the snow almost microscopically perfect. Taylers pictures
were of a different style altogether & those Fitch has no doubt wonderfully improved.
Crommelin's are not first rate but unrivalled for accuracy of outline & the precision
with which the perspective of the back & front ranges of the snow are kept is quite
marvellous. These are the only drawings the lazy fellow has done during his 10
years residence at Dorjiling! Now to answer your long & good letter of April 7th which
I received
[[10]] here, as also the melancholy one of poor Mrs Turners death, which I received
at Maldah on the 10th. I have written a note to poor grandfather, for whose
disconsolate condition I do feel very much indeed.
I am very glad that I have given satisfaction about the Rhododendron drawings &
seeds. The descriptions I sent from Calcutta by the April steamer. I was very doubtful
about R. thomsoni B., mainly from you & Lindley always harking upon the difficulty of
distinguishing the species &
[[11]] your suspicions that all mine could hardly be good. I therefore confined my
species to the most flagrant species & you will I hope agree with me that however
difficult it may be to separate them by leaf, the flower & fruit, give ample characters &
I do not at all believe in their hybridity in Sikkim. Under any circumstances it
deserves a drawing to itself & people may judge for themselves. I hope Fitch will
figure the print of all as far as the dry specimens allow. R. virgatum I could not find[,]
found it but once in flower & the weather was so bad that
[[12]] that[sic] I could not get on with the drawing. I named none after Strachey, not
knowing his claims as a botanist & feeling that I was overdoing it in the personal
namings but you may do it if you please. I do think the Indian species will hardly bear
another personal name.
Falconer is down on Bellenden Ker, who is a dirty, mean, dishonest dog, for whom I
would not do any thing if Lord D[alhousie]. were to ask me without telling him.
However I will say nothing to Courtenay. I must post this & will finish tomorrow on the
chance of being in time.
[[13]] What I saw of Griffiths Khassyah, Mishmi & Bhotan plants were woefully bad
specimens & some few of them, but there may be more of them. McLelland
McClelland] writes that the ferns are with in London. What a horrid story about
Kunth. Tom & I were trying to dig out one or two [of] his grasses & Cyperaceae from the
Enum[eratio] just before the news came in your letter.
Dalzell's descriptions appeared to me sound & good. There must be loads of novelty
between Cape Comorin [Kanyakumari] & Bombay [Mumbai], but it is a horrid climate.
I am sorry that the African teak is not a Vitex as it ought to have been.
<Tell> Mr Phillips Philips with my best
[[14]] regards, on no account to bother himself writing to me, I neither wish nor ever
expressed it. I get all the news from you & abundant proof of his kind feeling toward
me. I saw the changes proposed in the appt. of W[oods]. &.F[orests]. but not Ld
Seymour's app[ointmen]t.
Did I forget to tell you about Mr or Dr Francis, he is an Ass[istan]t. Surgeon in E.I.C.S.
[East ndia Company Service] who pretended to know a good deal of Botany[,] said to
the Campbells that his uncle had given you great assistance in your work on ferns. He
begged with great humility to be allowed the honor or making my acquaintance, a
privilege
[[15]] which I often did not think myself very condescending to grant. Then came a
most exuberantly periphrastic note begging the singular favour of being allowed to
look over some of my plants, with 10,000 apologies for the liberty & so forth. I
begged him to come whenever he pleased & make no ceremony. He came & rather
started at 75 large bundles, told me he was only a physiological botanist – a
distinction I confessed[?] envying him the possession of. After much hovering[?] I
begged he would mention any tribe or nat[ural] ord[er] he wished to see wherein he
begged for the "Tree--tribe". I was greatly diverted & answered that not being [part of
mss. missing] physiologist enough to
[[16]] be able to follow that arrangement I stuck to the Jussieuan & offered any
nat[ural] ord[er] from DC. [De Candolle] or Lindleys books, he asked for Oaks, Toon,
Caryota, Betel nut & Sal. The oaks occupied him an hour, turning over the papers, to
my grievous discomposure, as all my Phaenog[ram]s were packed & camphored
ready for the boxes. He was merciless however & would have each of the others dug
out, seeing, as Brown would say, that he did not know a cabbage from a cabbage-palm, or a carrot from a Caryota. I had more difficulty (extremely busy as I was under
his nose at packing) in keeping
[[17]] my temper than you will give me credit for. There gaped at, the leech would
have more & called for the cherry tribe -- by the greatest good luck I had a whole
bundle of 100 sheets of the one species of cherry itself. I put all before him without a
word, when to my inexpressible relief I gradually saw him [1 word illeg.] -- utterly
bewildered with the mixture of flower fruit & leaf, which he took for diff[eren]t genera
at the least -- & he dropped his pursuit in a great hurry. I begged him to stop & look
over the Cyperaceae, or Compositae the fine genus Symplocos, & my Incertae
Sedis, all in vain, he was off & I never saw his face
[[18]] again, but by accident on my way down to Calcutta, in a Bungalow, he wrote
me a most grateful letter however, I was wicked enough to tell the story in the station
& got dubbed "Cherry--ripe" by Judge Cathcart for my pains. The man is a goose & a
charlatan & nothing worse, except a bore & nothing can be worse than that. Not
content with proclaiming himself a Botanist he must needs set up for artist & begged
the privilege of drawing little Helen Campbell, of which picture great things were
expected & I was to have a copy, he however bottled after the first
[[19]] sitting, would not show the result, & never as much as called to bid the
Campbells', who were very kind to him, good--bye. So much & too much for Dr
Francis.
The "private application" for Strachey's plants should be made to the Court, -- I
expect you are confounding the 2 brothers Strachey's still & no wonder. Madden will
have put you right ere this.
Cathcart's drawings I have surely explained, are all now going on with being made at
Dorjiling, of D[orjiling]. plants. He has 5 artists at work, who turn out together about 3
plants a week,-- it costs him more than all my pay together
[[20]] which is much better than gambling the amount as he used, at loo. He is a son
of the late Ld Monnypenny, & a great friend of the Gibson Craigs & my Edinburgh
friends. He faithfully promises me the sole use of all the drawings & will I hope keep
his word, some are excellent, others vile, all useful in a greater or less degree.
Ever your most aff[ectionate] son | Jos D Hooker [signature]
ENDNOTES
1. An annotation written in another hand records that the letter was "rec'd July 25."
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.