April 14 1901
THE CAMP, SUNNINGDALE.
My dear Prain The Strach. & Winterb.*1 collection, together with the Burmese contingent, arrived two days ago, & I tackled the former at once. Of the 20 numbers your set wants 8, & there are discrepancies between our set, (which was the first) & yours’ in two or three cases, which I have noted on the yours & ours sheets. Further you have a No. 20, which we have not it is only I. Balsamina, & two species*2 on one sheet, one of which is not in our set. As to the Burmese plants, the most of them are only fit for the rubbish heap. There is not one of which it is possible to analyse a flower. Of the 18 sheets I take

5 to be I. Balsamina, & a[?] many to be I. chinensis. Really Abdul Khalil ought to be ashamed of himself. The specimens were evidently shriveled up, or the flowers rotten, before they were put in paper to dry! I have at last finished the group of Nepal Sikkim Khasie Assam & Mungalore[?] species, they are not worth differentiating geographically*3, but may be when more are known from Assam & Mangalore which is a very rich country. There are about 70 species in all, of which about 40 are Sikkim (some of these also Khasian.) About 25 are new species, either quite new, or separated from other described species with which I had confused them. It has cost 4 months hard work of 6-8 hours of the microscope daily, & I am far from satisfied with the result. Of 20 many[?] fruit is wanted, of more flowers in a satisfactory state, of most colo[u]rs. No organs

are unimportant - even the stamens must be "dugout" -- for I find 3 species with strongly cuspidate anther-cells, & which have no relations whatsoever with one another! Nor do I find any species with intermediate ones, anther-cells,*4 all the rest have simply [illeg.] ones. I have derived a halting[?] key to these 70 species, of which I hope to send you a copy, for I do not expect to see its publication -- having still the Burmese Peninsular & Chinese species to tackle & I shall be 84 on June 30th. Happily the Peninsula & Chinese specimens are far better than the E[ast] Himalayan Khasie &c. &c &. which, from Wallich’s*5 time, onward, have been unparalleled for badness -- no one has taken any pains about the poor genus. Clarke*6 indeed has even capital notes on his tickets, but his specimens are no better than others, & his attempts to draw are not happy. I have drawn the flowers & parts of the flower of nearly every species, & have been consulting Miss Smith*7 this morning about having pencil drawings, size of Icones[?] Plant.[?], of all the hitherto unpublished unfigured species,

probably 100. I am the more anxious about this, because I feel that descriptions of such bizarre organs as those of Impatiens are difficult to make intelligible, even when you have hit on the right group in which to seek for your species. I have written up in pencil the names on every sheet of the Calcutta Collection, adding any initials[.] There is a supplementary bundle of specimens from Sikkim Khasia & which contains several new species the specimens of which are not complete enough for describing*8 -- & many that I should put in the fire as hopelessly bad. The best of them I have kept in the mean time & if better specimens of these come to Kew, these will be returned. The rest I return for your auto-da-fe. I shall now set to at once with the Burmese & S[outh] India species. Only the other day we purchased at Reading I believe for Kew -- what is said to be Winterbottom’s own private collection! -- it contained no Impatiens. With my apologies for my frankness[?][.] Ever sincerely yours | Jos.D Hooker [signature] Lady H. always asks of Mrs Prain