[[1]]
Darjeeling
May 18 1848
My dear Father
At last I have the pleasure of sending you a portion of the Flora of the Niger which is I believe in earnest of the whole following as fast as I can get it copied out. I have conscientiously devoted several hours to it every day done it with all the care I can. Planchon had better look it over & if Bentham would correct the first proof & my mother the second all will be fairly done. I have put you to much inconvenience by delaying it so long, for which I am heavily sorry; the more especially as my time is so over--fully employed here that I grudge the outlay upon copying mss.
Since writing last, then very hurriedly to my mother, I have been into Sikkim to the boundary of Bootan [Bhutan], along one of the deep valleys 6000 ft below this & got a great many good plants. The journey was though not distant a very difficult one from the impractical nature of the country had been accomplished by but one individual before which is however more owing to the lazyness[sic] & want of curiosity of the people the fact of the Rajah of Sikkim forbidding all crossing the narrow bounds of Darjeeling. I shall give you in my journal a detailed acc[oun]t of this trip, but until the rains set in, when I cannot botanize I must not spend time in copying any--thing more than the Niger Flora. I was most pleased with finding a Cycas, probably the Assam one, never found so far W[est].; the India rubber tree, a new? orange with a very narrow taper fruit a little Phoenix. My route was a steep descent from this place (7200 ft) where Oak, Maple, Rhododendron, Birch, Alder, Hydrangea abound with Violet, Hypericum, Rubi[aceae], Strawberry, Potentila, Gentian, Geranium & many other Europe genera prevail, to the forests of 4000 -- 6000 ft which are characterized by Araliaceae, 1 tree fern, Alsophila n[ea]r gigantea but perhaps new, Urticae, scandent Leguminosa &c.
[[2]] Lower still at 3000 ft Shorea robusta comes in with Cedrela toona a sprinkling of trees of the plains Cedrela toona Dalbergia sissoo, the Phoenix Alstonia? At
1500 -- 500 on the dry hills Pinus longifolia with the Phoenix still more abundant, Saccharum, Sterculia & many Fici, Rubiaceae, Gnetum &c which continue along the beds of the rivers & follow them to the plains. Parasitic orchid abound at 4000 but I have them from 9000 & I doubt not they ascend to 10,000. To you indeed to myself the most interesting vegetation is at 7000 -- 9000 within which limits are Stauntonia, 5 Arums noble things whose fruit & colors I have sketches, 9 Rubi[aceae]. a glorious Paris a yard high with a wheel of 14 leaves, Convallaria, Chrysosplenium, Coptis? I suppose a new species. Sanicula, Vaccinium[?] 3 sp[ecies]. Magnolia 5. all good 3 gorgeous. Many ferns Mosses & Fungi & Lichens. 3 Rhododendrons, one scarlet, one white with superb foliage one the most lovely thing you can imagine, a parasite on gigantic trees 3[?] yards high with whorls of branches, 3 -- 6 immense white deliciously sweet scented flowers at the apex of each branch. It is the most splendid thing of the kind I have seen seen[sic] more delicate than the others. The scarlet & large leaved white I have sent roots of to Calcutta *1 but I doubt their getting through the plains in the wet weather alive. The large parasite is very difficult to obtain I doubt it reaching England I shall send it down in the rains. I can no where recognise seedlings of the Magnolias & may have to wait their seed time -- of Oaks I have 4 but no good seeds, they grow or not as soon as they fall & that was last autumn -- in October I will send them overland. -- I have seen but 4 or 5 Palms & none exactly arborescent -- Calamus, Phoenix, Alstonia? Caryota & Laleuca[?] (but these are all guesses I have no books.[)] Arums are superb
[[3]] and very curious. One flowered in my room this morning I was awoken by an insufferable stench, putting a therm[ometer]. into the spathe it rose to 9° above the temp[erature]. of the air at 7 am now at 11 pm it is 4 degrees hotter than the air. I draw as many things as I possibly can send them to Falconer for transmission to you, the three first Magnolias he tells me are all new -- two others I have not sent down: the 3 Rhod[odendrons].are all drawn, & about 40 other plants.
Tomorrow I go to the confines of Nepal W[est]. from this to a hill 10,000 ft high, which has only been visited by Col[onel] Waugh of the Trig[onometric]. Survey who brought a branch of yew from it. I shall be away some days as marching in this country is very difficult over ranges of hills with very bad paths. The rains too have set in will continue till end of September. We have dense fogs from 9 am till 2 or 3 pm, then heavy rain till 6 when the mists roll away all round the snowy range appears in pale grandeur, sometimes visible all night rapidly clouding over at a little after sunrise. A Major Crommelia has lent me a beautiful water color view of the snowy range which I am to send his brother in London. I have a good many sketches of my own now, some of the regular Himalayan valleys with cane bridges swung across the torrents from a tree to a rock, with one bamboo to walk on, all are very unfinished however as you know I cannot fill in, still they are better than any thing I have done before. The real wild Banana is here in millions between 2000 4000 ft bearing a small austere fruit with ripe black seeds -- not yet in flower. The true orange I have too I suppose quite wild. I am collecting woods & implements &c as fast as I can. I have just bought 2 pretty little wood cups of very elegant shape
[[4]] turned out of the knots of trees *2, one 5[?] inches across cost 4d. & is of a walnut--looking wood, another 4 inches of a prettier & paler wood only found beyond the snow cost 10/--; though exactly similar it is considered very valuable very rarely to be got; they call the 10/-- one the Rajah the 4d. the slave but to most peoples eyes there is not 2d. between them, both are full of Thibet Barley (of which I have last years ears for you) on my chimney piece. I bought these a beautiful silver mounted dagger from a Thibetan Lama, a superb fellow like a good natured Sir W. Symonds, draped in purple velvet with a large rosary hat with cardinals ribbons. I got also a poor Rosary for you for 10/ but cannot find out what the beads are made of. There is Cornelian in it, agate, bad amber & a vegetable bead. My high priest has sent a man to collect beyond the snow to whom I gave some paper, as Dr Campbell effected this I hope it will be successful. Bamboo is the staple product here, I have a pretty basket of it (very pretty) & have ordered more & other things. The Lepchas, or mountaineers of Sikim[sic] I like extremely I have 2 men who collect fairly climb trees áu merveille *3 & to day have added 2 bags of 8 14 or thereabouts, one a very fine little fellow. Falconer has sent me up every thing I asked for including 2 Bengal collectors -- regular Hay makers I dislike the Bengalees very much & these are lazy dogs as all are. I shall astonish them tomorrow when they will have to travel some 15 miles through these woods. One actually objected to carry the vasculum 6 miles, whilst a Lepcha carries 80 -- 100 lbs 16 miles on a stretch laughs all day long.
Now for money affairs; you kindly sent me £500, which is I suppose my salary beginning about 10th Nov[embe]r plus £100 of your own. It was payable through McVicar Smith Coy of Calcutta (in which house Findlay is) I signed Barclays draft the other day but as Findlay begged me not to leave
[[5]] more in their hands than I possibly could (considering how uncertain every business is now) I only filled it up for £300, which I hope will last me till Nov[embe]r & leave me £200 clear to begin next year with besides my salary which is I suppose due in Nov[embe]r giving me [£]600 for next year. I thought it better to do this than risk the whole if (as I hope) [I] possibly can get--through on the [£]300, of which I suppose £200 are spent. If it does not last me I will draw either through Falconer or Colvilles on you. You can take it from Barclay, with whom I suppose the odd [£]200 lies.
My plans for the future are very uncertain. I stay here till October, the plant season only now coming on, in another month I shall take up my quarters with Hodgson, whose name as once Pol[itical] Resid[ent] at Neapaul [Nepal] & the best Indian Zoologist you no doubt know but who is far better known as an oriental linguist, ethnologist & geographer. If Lord Dalhousie accedes to my request demands from the Sikkim Rajah the right for me to visit the snow, I shall do so in October, i.e. as soon as the rains clear when only the country is practicable, but we have foolishly given the Rajah his own way this 10 years past & he is in the hands of the Emperor
of China who will probably fine punish him if he permits a traveller to enter his own kingdom (which I do covertly as it is but only a few marches). In case of a refusal (which I all but expect) I shall go down to the Barrampoota [Brahmaputra] in October
& up to Assam, or to Sadiya the very extreme of the country which Griffiths found so rich & if possible ascend Dapha Bum a m[oun]t[ain] 14500 [feet] with perpetual snow -- Lat[itude] 27.40. Long[itude] 96.42. I shall visit Jenkins (to whom
[[6]] I have written about Dapha Bum[)], at Gowahatty [Guwahati] the Tea districts. I shall then descend the Barrampoota to Gowahatty strike across the Mopling fir forest & Cossya [Khasi] hills to Cherra Poonjee [Cherrapunjee] & thence E[ast]. to Munneepore [Manipur] in Ava, a place full of M[oun]t[ain]s 4000 -- 8000 ft never yet visited. This will take till March 1849 at any rate.
As soon as I return from Tonglo TONGLO due W[est]. of this on the Neapul frontier of Sikkim I shall despatch my live plants to Calcutta to be forwarded to you, part overland part to wait a ship. I have the Phoenix Cycas, Paris, noble Arums, Convallariae, & hope to add the yew & another batch of Rhododendrons with Rubi[aceae].. I shall ask Falconer to cut off slips of the Rubi[aceae]. at Calcutta & send them on board the day the steamer leaves. I will get stems of the Cycas before I leave but the valleys are deadly now my poor Lepchas if they cross the frontier alone will be seized fined for having shewn[sic] me the way to Bootan the stones & herbs on the road. I have a great many woods already, & will get more. The season is not come yet for grains c.
I must indeed break off promise you good journal letters that will please Reeves as soon as the Rains prevent my going abroad. Very many thanks for your last long letter & the announcement of Assam Tea book & Lindley's V. K.[Vegetable Kingdom]. I have written asking Falconer to send others by post. The Glenorchy is just
[[7]] arrived. I want the big collecting boxes sadly. You don't know how fat exotic plants are & what a small bulk a great heap dries down to.
I am perfectly well enjoying this exceedingly: I cannot write to any one else this time[.] Best love to my mother whose good letters also came safe to hand, to Bessy, Frances & citoyen *4 Planchon. Do not think me idle for not sending better journal letters I assure you I am working all day will copy them out as soon as ever I have leisure. Say every--thing for me to Mr Philips, L[or]d Auckland & L[or]d Morpeth. I will write to Bentham, Harvey c c when I have more leisure. You shall hear from me
as soon as I return from Tonglo.
Your ever affectionate son| Jos D Hooker [signature]
[[8]] Via Southampton| Sir W. J. Hooker| R[oyal] Gardens| Kew| London. *5
ENDNOTES
1. The current name of the city of Calcutta is Kolkata.
2. A small outline sketch of a cup appears here.
3. á merveille being French for: perfectly.
4. Citoyen being French for: citizen.
5. 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'.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic image(s) of this document where possible.