[[1]] *1
Extract from Dr. Hooker's letter -- dated Darjeeling, Jan[uar]y. 29. 1849.
I have not seen the Nepal wheat hitherto.-- indeed very little wheat is grown here,
& during the months I spent in Nepal, the winter crop of wheat was just up in the
low valleys, & the summer crop of the Mts. only put into the ground. Tell your father
that I found on the roots of a tree, a growth precisely like what Georgie dug from
the ivy x roots, & that Griffith's Phaeocordylis (see Linn[ean]. Trans[actions]. Gr. or
Balanoph[ora].) was growing on the same roots. I do not doubt I was right in
supposing it a diseased action due to a Parasite probably Orobanche.
In Sikkim I found Bhotean inscriptions abounding in some places.-- they are
beautifully cut -- generally mere repetitions of a short invocation written in three
x
I think it was but roots.
[[2]] characters, and repeated over thousands of stone buildings erected on
purpose, but now and then I meet one with long yarns whose meaning the monks
cannot give. My time was too much taken up to procure rubbings -- but when I go
again, I shall teach a servant the art. I brought away several of the best, but had to
hire men to carry them on our marches, & what to do with them now I cannot tell.
ENDNOTES
1. This extract is a copy, written in a hand not that of the original author, JDH, and
is unsigned.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study
electronic image(s) of this document where possible.