[[1]]
Darjeeling
July 19, 1848. *1
My dear Father
I have been so extremely occupied this past month that post time is come & I have
hardly time to write to you. I have sent down by post dawk *2 to Calcutta *3 (& I
earnestly hope they may arrive [in] time to go by this steamer) a parcel, in it -- the
conclusion of the Niger Flora Leguminosae which perhaps Bentham will kindly see
through the press. There are a few omissions chiefly of D.C. references *4 my books
not having come to hand yet. All my sketches I send home at the same time,
indifferent, bad & worse. I retain none but one or two of this place -- Drawings of all
the Rhododendrons except a starveling[?] dwarf one, of which I send a description, &
two of which I sent drawings before; i.e. a large white with silvery underside, a purple
which has I hope silvery underside, or if not I have drawn the R. campbelliae twice &
not at all R. hodgsonii which is distinguished from it by "folia subta argent. basi in
petiolum angustata". I send a dupl[icate] of the R. odorum much larger than the
former & a specimen of the middle size. I would
[[2]] send more specimens but dare not for the damp at this season, but you may
depend on it I have a bundle of dried specimens that will astonish you. Three
gov[ernmen]t Navy half pay bills go home at the same time which please place to
your own acc[oun]t. I myself confess that I do not know whether you can draw the
money without a line from Ld. A[uckland]. I believe I should have given you a power
of attorney before leaving England. A list of my last remittance of roots to Calcutta
goes with them, to show you that I do not forget the Gardens. Many (very many I
fear) will die in Calcutta but F[alconer]. has put them into a glass case & will send
them by first opportunity. All that will live till a vessel goes shall be sent. This is the 4
lots of roots I sent down but one was all killed -- a bit of Lepcha cloth made of a
Boehmeria goes with the parcel & a book from Campbell. I need not say I have
several yards of the cloth for you, & two beautiful pieces of cotton cloth besides
which latter are really very handsome. I have very great difficulty in getting things from
these
[[3]] natives, they are so poor as to be able to dispose of nothing & don't like
manufacturing work at all. I got some pretty baskets made but they have been 3
months doing the trifling job, the bows arrows quiver &c are not forthcoming yet nor
50 other things I have ordered. I have 6 always collecting & two drying papers for
Friday; they collect very little. There is but one bulky spadixed palm here which is
now drying before the fire for you & dropping its unexpanded blossoms like hail, it is
an unruly beast. I have finished my Soane &c journal for you & it is more complete
than I intended[.] The As[iatic] Soc[iety]. so kindly urged me to give them an abstract
that I have made one, very different in details from that I now send you. Please retain
the letter style & announce it as "corrected extracts from private letters" there must
be so many errors. Wallich would I dare say see to the spelling of the names &c I
should like you when printed to send a copy to Robert Chambers Edinburgh; of
Chambers Journal; who would I doubt not be pleased with the compliment: & print
portions which would do both the Journal & me good popularizing the gov[ernmen]t
expedition with the public.
Smith must really pack roots &c better Sir L. Peel cannot read one of those in the
box past last sent, nor of those I took out to Alexandria Ceylon for Sir L. Peel could
any be read. Yet the nursery--men send roots & cuttings in beautiful order as far as
Calcutta, notched pieces of wood would do perfectly well. *5
I do not say any thing about the bottles being broken you always dreaded it but
Falconer says they were shamefully
[[4]] packed & of all the bottles & boxes we had in the Arct[ic]. Expe[dition] whether
private, or gov[ernmen]t. or from College of Surgeons none were broken travelling or
packing. Of a dozen large jars I took to the Soane & they were as thin as wafers I
carried & bumped most fearfully only 3 got broken during that most smashing
journey though full & the cart capsized twice. Falconer says the stoppers were not
even tied down these got loose & broke the bottles & no packing or stuffing between the sides of
the bottles & cases. I can carry them about safe enough. I cannot get a jar or pickle
bottle here for love or money & in Calcutta they are extravagantly dear. I am too old
a traveller not to know what can & what can't come safe if properly put up. Enough
however I will remedy it the best way I can so that the Garden shall not loose
eventually by the accident.
My collection is getting on famously & I shall have an excellent Herbarium to send
home[?], as soon as the rains are over in October when I leave this for Assam I
hope. Major Jenkins wants me to be
[[5]] there early in October but that is quite impossible as I must get all my collections
redried after the rains, before they can go down to Calcutta. Besides I still hope to
get to the snow here.
You will be glad to hear that I have not yet spent £200 since leaving England, though
I have had a good deal of expenses which are quite extra. -- I am very comfortable
here with Hodgson who is a capital host, we live like hermits & never see any one, at
all. I make 2 calls only on Dr & Mrs Campbell & on the Mr Mullers, 2 brothers one in
the opium factory at Patna, the other in mint at Calcutta, they are excellent people
bachelors & fond of science, here for their health. I get on very comfortably with
Campbell who has been most attentive of late, I find he is a dreadfully timorous man
& has had so many raps on the knuckles from gov[ernmen]t as to fear promoting my
views Northward. It w[oul]d be impossible to give you the ins & outs of the border
policy here. Campbell & the gov[ernmen]t are both anxious to forward me on -- the
gov[ernmen]t won't order Campbell to for fear of a war with China, Campbell won't
run the risks of committing himself without an order. Ld. D[alhousie]. kindly sent me
an explicit statement from the Colonial Office of what their ideas of the relations
between ourselves & Sikim [Sikkim] should be & these I have put into Campbells
[[6]] hands. In the mean time C[ampbell]. is helping me all in his power with the
Botany of the neighbourhood. I like his wife too very much & though I think he
treated me very ill on my coming up I have turned civil at last, he has some small
children too who have taken to me & was shown up in the papers the other day, poor
man, which was undeserved & touched my pity. Add to all this that I cannot tolerate
any other lady here but Mrs C[ampbell]. & see no one else except at church. I wrote
& told him this morning that I would ask you to confirm the name of a Rhododendron
on his wife. A little compliment that has touched him to the quick: he is very much
attached to his wife & I really never saw a man so keenly appreciate a very trifling
favor. Now pray don't forget to attach the name to one of the species sent if the one I
have given it to be not new. With regard to all the names I pray alter them as you
please or name the plants yourself, at my offer[?]. I have no ambitions that way now
& I would indeed rather see your initials
[[7]] at their tails than my own. but I beseech you don't forget this McCallum--Mora. I
wish very much the drawing were better, they are very rough, but faithful on my
honor. I have drawn & colored 95 species of Fungi for Berkeley & dried more, but
they are shockingly bad to dry, worse than in any part of the world I have ever been
in, almost all are fleshy. I did think of sending a centuria prima of drawings home but
want them to refer to till the Fungus season is over. My drawings of Phaenog. are in
proportion. Balanophora is a new species I have since found it, or a variety of it at
9000 ft. I have prepared elaborate dissections for Linn[ean]. Soc[iety].
Trans[actions]. I have heaps of fancy & fine things. By next mail I hope to have an
account of the Magnoliae drawn up for you with one or two more species drawn, all
are long past flower now. I leave you the naming of the big species, of all. I hope you
will name for Lady D[alhousie]. that or the white Rhododendron bye the bye. A letter
from Thomson today short & saying he has written long fully to you
[[8]] so I do not send it, he is a capital fellow. Gurney is well & happy most kindly
attentive to all my wants & there are so many that I divide them between him &
Falconer nothing can exceed the solicitude of the latter or the practicality & zeal with
which he discharges my commissions, looks after my traps[,] books, &c &c names
plants for me &c &c he has saved me many pounds in postage besides. He is much
better & lecturing 4 times a week in Calcutta, it is impossible that with that duty he
can attend to the Garden. Ld. D[alhousie]. has been very ill indeed but is better now.
Your excellent letter came the other day. I am glad to have anticipated your wishes
concerning the Opium factory & Rhododendrons. To Stocks I have not written yet but
will. Hodgson's sister with the elder Miss Colvile will come to the Gardens some day,
probably with the Miss Edens.
[[9]] I am taking up the cudgels for Wallich on all occasions; so has Madden whom I
have written to congratulate thereon. His Tent[amen]. Flor[ae]. Nep[alensis]. is a very
excellent work. I am glad you saw Col[onel] Lawrence, has he shaved yet? He &
Hodgson are bitter enemies, the latter former having been unceremoniously put over
H[odgson]'s head in Nepaul [Nepal]. L[awrence]. is wanted sadly in Lahore where my
poor friend Curries is getting into hot water. Here I must make the best of all Indian
Botanists, & I am sure you will accede that I have said the best of Griffiths work &
McLellands rendering of it for it is vilely done I must think though to say so here
would be to be thought jealous &c. But what a coxcomb Griffith was to blame
Wallich for publishing undescribed names for self glorification; whilst he himself
publishes in India a Musc. Itin Assam: when after the Linn[ean]. Soc[iety]. rejected it
on the grounds of the characters being insufficient & some of the species already
described in well known books -- Voights Hort[us]. Suburb[anus]. Calc[uttensis]. is a
poor ponderous affair. -- I do suppose that Brown has all but cut us; Ever since the
getting back of the Rafflesias he has held a grudge & his conduct to me about the
fossil cones was so mean & jealous
[[10]] that I could hardly put up with it. He faithfully promised me this years election
into the Athenaeum, but puts in Falconer instead who does not want it, even if at
home. However, I do not mind the thing at all. I gave him presents of slices of my
best fossils that cost several pounds the cutting & all to keep his jealousy down, but
it would not do. Proving him in error capped the offence & I suppose I shall never be
forgiven. I am more sorry that Bennett should take offense at the museum things. I
cannot suppose he really does but must follow his lead.
We have a phosphorescent Fungus here but I have only seen the mycelium as yet,
an all but invisible patch on decayed wood bounded by a black line such as divides
the compartments between the cells in that curious piece of honey--colored wood
from Borneo which Belcher gave us.
[[11]] On looking over this letter written last night I can hardly read it myself -- the
damp has ruined the paper so I trust to my mothers deciphering powers though. We
had heard of a grand discovery last night brought by the post from Col[onel] Waugh the
Surveyor General who was here last season measured the snowy peaks but took his
work away to calculate. He writes that the culminant peak 40 miles off due N[orth]. &
opposite me is 28178 feet high: the highest mountain in the world! it is one of the
true Himalayah -- Chamalari a little East of this & which rises from the plain of Thibet
[Tibet] isolated from the great chain is only 24000. (it has been called 28000 &
30,000) Waugh is now measuring Dawalgiri in Nepaul long reputed 28.000 which
may possibly prove higher than this, but it is not likely. I do hope to go to the snow on
this giant yet, which rejoices in the name of Kinchin--junga [Kanchenjunga] from here
it is a grand spectacle. *6
ENDNOTES
1. A note written in another hand records that the letter was received Oct. 2d.
2. Dawk or dak is a system of mail delivery by relays of bearers or horses stationed
at intervals along a route.
3. The current name of the city formerly known as Calcutta is Kolkata.
4. D.C. is probably an abbreviation of De Candolle and the references Hooker
mentions are probably from the plant catalogue Prodromus Systematis Naturalis
Regni Vegetabilis, begun by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and continued by his
descendants Alphonse de Candolle and Casimir de Candolle.
5. This paragraph is written in the margins of pages 2 and 3. It begins written upside
down at the top of page two and then runs across the left hand margin of pages 2
and 3 at right angles to the rest of the text. . It is not exactly clear where in the letter
it is meant to be read.
6. There is no signature though this appears to be the end of the letter. The letter is
written in the hand of Joseph Dalton Hooker. There is the faded impression of a
name written at the bottom left of the page which has most likely transferred from
another page or letter. The name is very faint but appears to read "Thomas
Palgrave".
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.