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that there is a true Indian flora as well as a Malayan; or as a merely geographical expression;-- & I am coming to the conclusion that there is no Indian flora proper: -- your "India vera" is perhaps nearest to it -- but is it not Malaya--African? Swarms of Indian types are turning up in Africa -- including some that were held to be typically Malayan.
I am very anxious to get from Parusnath[?] a whole trunk of Phoenix robusta for the Kew Museum. Could not some collector or magistrate manage this? or possibly a Forester. The leaves should be turned down on the trunk & the spadix be cut off & packed with the leaves. A fine large addition has been made to the Woods Museum at Kew where I hope that Palm trunks will be a conspicuous feature.
I am still working at a sketch of my father’s Life & Labour*4 for the Annals, but cannot
The Camp. Sunningdale
March 10 1902
My dear Prain
The Impatiens package arrived last week, just too late for me to acknowledge it by the Friday Mail. I have gone through it all & find it to be most satisfactory. I fancy it includes almost all the species from below 11000 ft.: the drawing[s] are invaluable, & the detailed perianth segments are beyond price; they will save literally weeks of labor[stet] in determining the species. I think there are some interesting novelties amongst them. To the Calcutta Herb[ariu]m this collection will prove invaluable. Please tell me whether you have retained a
set for Herb[arium] Calcutta, or shall I select one & return it with the duplicates[?] The drawings I shall get copied & return the originals, which should be in Calcutta Herb[ariu]m. I am writing to Pantling*1[.]
King*2 tells me that you are rapidly getting on with the Bengal Flora, which I long to see[.]
I think that I told you of my having finished my sketch of the Indian flora for the herb[arium] Gazetteer, & that the editor informs me that "it may not be wanted for some considerable time". -- I am not sorry for this, as Gamble*3 has kindly promised[?] to review it all with me.
I am greatly exercised in the matter of such terms as Indio-Chinese, Indo Malayan & other Indos, They may be The Indo. may be used in two senses, a botanical, implying
that there is a true Indian flora as well as a Malayan; or as a merely geographical expression;-- & I am coming to the conclusion that there is no Indian flora proper: -- your "India vera" is perhaps nearest to it -- but is it not Malaya--African? Swarms of Indian types are turning up in Africa -- including some that were held to be typically Malayan.
I am very anxious to get from Parusnath[?] a whole trunk of Phoenix robusta for the Kew Museum. Could not some collector or magistrate manage this? or possibly a Forester. The leaves should be turned down on the trunk & the spadix be cut off & packed with the leaves. A fine large addition has been made to the Woods Museum at Kew where I hope that Palm trunks will be a conspicuous feature.
I am still working at a sketch of my father’s Life & Labour*4 for the Annals, but cannot
get it finished for the April number.
I beg your acceptance herewith of a trunk[?] of Linnaeus, which I have got the Wedgewood firm to turn out from the old molds. I have a copy that belonged to my Grandfather Dawson Turner with a note on the back, that Dr Solander*5 said that it was the best of all likenesses of Linnaeus - If you care to frame it -- a simple black wood frame with a narrow gilt rim round the cameo[?] is best.
With Lady Hookers kindest regards[.]
Ever sincerely yours | Jos.D Hooker [signature]
Brandes*6 has been very ill with pleurisy, but is convalescent. King says he is all right.
Robert Pantling (1856 -- 1910). British botanist trained at Kew (1875). He was later appointed Curator of the Calcutta Botanic Garden (1879) and subsequently Deputy Superintendent of the Cinchona Plantation, Bengal (1897-1910).
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
James Sykes Gamble (1847 -- 1925). English botanist who specialized in the flora of the Indian sub-continent. His collection of nearly 50,000 specimens was gifted to Kew.
‘A Sketch of the Life and Labours of Sir William Jackson Hooker’ by Joseph Hooker was published in 1903
Daniel Solander (1733 -- 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. In 1772, he accompanied Joseph Banks on his voyage to Iceland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands. Between 1773 and 1782 he was Keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum.
Sir Dietrich Brandis (1824 -- 1907). A German-British botanist and forestry academic and administrator, who worked with the British Imperial Forestry Service in colonial India for nearly 30 years.
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