April 3, 1901
THE CAMP, SUNNINGDALE.
My dear Prain The Wallichian specimens arrived this morning, & I have taken them in hand at once. The very first specimen, (of 4729) is quite unlike any of the rebate of the 4 species under that number on Herb. Linn Soc. !: it is moreover incomparably the finest specimen of any Impatiens in that the whole Herb[arium]! It may be as form of I bicolor, Royle (I. Amphorata, Edgew*1[.]) of which these is[stet] what I take to be another form also under Wall.*2 Cat. 4729*3. -- I shall soon return them, but without the ludicrous & indeed mischievous "candle-lighters" so thickly strewn[?] without sense or method over the sheets. How can you allow so insane a practice? What other herbarium in the world follows it? Your Herb[arium] Assis[tants] must have plenty of time in their hands, one might say. But indeed your whole "Res Herbarium" wants

great reform in collecting, preserving, mounting, strapping & keep. I know of no tropical collections so swarming with ill collected & preserved specimens as the Indian. As a rule, the Indian botanist will not collect & lay his specimens into drying paper with his own hands, as Thomson*4 & I did in Sikkim & Khasia, or supervise the natives in this work. In such a genus as Impatiens, the result is disastrous -- Nor can I comprehend why so rich & beautiful a genus has been so neglected. The Calcutta Herb[arium] of Sik[k]im species is contemptible, only redeemed by the fine series[?] received from Gammie’s*5 clutches. These latter I have mixed off with the other Calcutta specimens, always adding Gammie’s name to these specimens that he collected. There are several new sp[ecies] amongst them. Sikkim swarms with Impatiens, I think I may have 60 species! Of Khasien & species the Calcutta Herb[arium] is far richer, & the specimens are much better. Though working all day except when I go to Kew for Bot. Mag. purposes, (about once a week) I am not yet through with the

Sikkim & Khasian species. Now you may retort "Physician heal thyself" for the blunders I have made in Fl. B. Ind. [Flora British India] humble me. The fact is, that with most species, owing to want of fruits or the badness of specimens, the flowers of every one of these specimens must be soaked out of the glue & analyzed under water to assure identity. - This I did not dare to do with the Wallichian Herb[arium]*2 when I did Fl. B. I. [Flora of British India] -- nor did I venture to do so with unique specimens in other Herbaria -- I am now grown bolder & by floating the separated organs into on strips of paper & preserving them I provide information for my successors that is otherwise inaccessible -- I also sketch the flowers & their parts of every species in Kew Herb[arium] & of very many specimens, & am thinking of getting outline drawings made of the whole specimens of the species not already illustrated in published works. The having the fruits of several species now for the first time, disturbs my reference of sundry species to the groups under which I had placed them. I fancy you must have found the Evil effects of the glue pot in Pedicularis & Corydalis, though it in these genera the gluer

cannot so easily indulge his love of now & then fastening the specimens down so that the leaves shall conceal the flowers, & of strapping the more capillary pedicels however firmly attached to the paper already they may be. You probably know that your Wallichian set was a reserve from the bundles left after the Wallichian distribution at the Linnean rooms, & which I applied for & distributed as I did the Roylean. It is of course a very imperfect set -- but still of considerable value. It was not with any idea of finding any thing I expected or wanted that I wished to collect its Impatiens with the "Linnean Society types" but as a duty to Herb[arium] Calcutta, to which I owe so much. As it is, I am rewarded by 4729, of which I shall have a drawing made. You probably know that the first set & the 2nd of Khasia & Sikkim Impatiens made by Thomson & [my]self & sent to Calcutta, went to the bottom of the Arabian sea with various other orders at the commencement of Thomson's superintendent duty[?][.] I hope you will not be offended at my speaking about Indian specimens in general, but I am jealous of the credit of the Calcutta Herbarium & the conditions of Impatiens after a whole century of collecting by European nations is a lesson. Ever sincerely yours | Jos.D Hooker [signature] We are very sorry to hear of Mrs Prains illness. *6Lady H[ooker] bids me say with her kind regards how concerned she is to hear of Mrs Prains state, & whether you will[?] let us know how she goes on.