Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC1041
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
PRAIN LETTERS PRA f.166
Prain, Sir David
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
23-9-1900
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to D. Prain
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 
Transcript


more to detach -- these mutilated -- flowers & two or more to dissect it, which must be done under water. I have just finished the materials I have from the West Himalaya species*1 & are staggered with the novelties that Duthie*2 & Clarke*3 have obtained & the awful[?] variation in old species. I could now make upwards of 36 species from N[orth] Himal[aya]! but feel sure that probably a third of these will prove to be varieties when I get fuller material. I shall not publish tell I get collections that Duthie is making for me with separately dried floral organs -- I find most important characters in the petals, but the analyses of these is too often hopeless. Today I began your Burmean species a lot of (to me) most novel types amongst them:

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Sept[ember] 23 1900
THE CAMP, SUNNINGDALE.
My dear Prain Many thanks for the Report -- which always interests me. I see that you have been getting lots more Eastern plants, & I hope you will excuse my saying that some attention to the mounting the specimens is very desirable. The state of the Impatiens is simply excruciating in very many cases -- the flowers hidden by leaves & sometimes even covered with a wholly needless strap & the glue in great blobs that would disgrace a carpenter´s work -- no spare flowers or put[?] in separate envelopes. It takes often an hour or

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more to detach -- these mutilated -- flowers & two or more to dissect it, which must be done under water. I have just finished the materials I have from the West Himalaya species*1 & are staggered with the novelties that Duthie*2 & Clarke*3 have obtained & the awful[?] variation in old species. I could now make upwards of 36 species from N[orth] Himal[aya]! but feel sure that probably a third of these will prove to be varieties when I get fuller material. I shall not publish tell I get collections that Duthie is making for me with separately dried floral organs -- I find most important characters in the petals, but the analyses of these is too often hopeless. Today I began your Burmean species a lot of (to me) most novel types amongst them:

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but more & better specimens much wanted. I work all day at the genus, but do not get beyond 3 species in a day, often not that. As to a Natural arrangement, I am more puzzled than ever, & fancy I shall have to follow Fl.B.I.[Flora Brit. India] in the main. I fancy that the flowers of Impatiens present the widest deviation from symmetry of any genus of flowering plants. Polygala is bad. King is staying with Clarke & working at Eugenia: he looks fairly well. We hear that Mrs Prain is in England, & hope we may catch her but do not know her address. Ever sincerely yours | Jos.D Hooker [signature] 26th P.S. I have enquired at the Herbarium about the material used now for fastening down species: it is gum Arabic alone, with fish glue for very woody specimens. Your mounters overdo the work, the specimens are incorporated with the

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paper -- stem leaves & flowers; & as to the latter it seems immaterial whether they are exposed on overlaid with the leaves -- Sometimes the specimen is glued down face downwards! The strapping is dreadful, often over the flowers – King*4 approves of my writing to you & confirms[?] the facts. He [illeg.] me Eugenias the leaves of which had come off the paper -- this I told him was due to using cold glue. The more I examine your Burmese species the more interested I get -- surely no one genus of plant presents so astonishing a diversity of flower organs, while retaining[?] the one type of flower. i.e. 2 lateral sepals, lip, standard & soped 4 wings (4 petals united 1 piece[?]) there is great uniformity in the stamens, more in the style & very much in the fruit & seeds. My progress is terribly slow & few of the Burmese & Malayan species are fit for publication from want of fruit especially.

ENDNOTES


This site is marked with an asterisk with the sentence “I have named all yours” written in the left hand column to be inserted at this point. John Firminger Duthie (1845 -- 1922). English botanist and explorer who was Superintendent of Saharanpur Botanical Gardens in Uttar Pradesh, India, from 1875 – 1903. Charles Baron Clarke (1832 -- 1906). British botanist. Clarke was superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1869 to 1871. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1887, returned to England and worked at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew until his death in 1906. Sir George King (1840 --1909), superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta 1871 -- 1898 and the first Director of the Botanical Survey of India 1891-1898. In 1898 King was succeeded at the Calcutta Botanical Gardens by Sir David Prain.
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