April 27[?] 1902
THE CAMP. SUNNINGDALE.
My dear Prain I have just received your most welcome letter of 8th & by way of "striking the iron when it is hot," I take up my pen. I am very glad to hear that a complete set of the last collection of Impatiens is kept at Calcutta, at my age one gets very cautious -- & still more glad that Pantling*1 may be able to get another hunt[?]; for he rightly says that there are Sikkim species of which there are no specimens in the collection he has made. I wish he could get up to 12000 ft. for a day or two. I will gladly contribute £10.10, to his excursion if you think that would help. I hope too he will keep Scitamineae & Irideae in

in[stet] view & especially Musa, which still puzzles me -- good sketches are wanted of the ♂ and ♀ flowers & fruits. Needs[?] also seeds for cultivation. Morris separates paradisiaca from sapientius by one (I forget which) having bracts persistent in fruit, caducous in the other. I quite appreciate the term IndoChinese -- but if it be adopted so must other Indos. -- to which I should not object. 1 Indo-Malayan = +/- Burma & W. Ghats 2 Indo-Chinese = E. Himal & N. H. & to Burma 3 Indo-European = W. Himalaya, 4 Indo-Oriental= W. Punjab. 5 Indo- Arabian= Scand[?] 6 Indo-African= Decan[?] & parts of Burma. Of these Indo-Malayan is the most numerous, and pervades more or less all the others. If there is an India proper[?], it is your

"India vera"; but are not its types all tropical African? As to China, I do not think it can be lumped with India & Malaya. See Bentham's*2 admirable preface to the Flora of Hong Kong, which I take it may be supposed to be a typically Chinese Flora: then we have Endemics 52.159 Chinese—187 Arched[?] & Pacifics 56 Temp Asiatic 10 [sums up to ]412 Non Indian Trop Asiatic 398 India proper 193 [sums up to ]591 Indian. This appears to me to give a good claim for considering the Chinese as distinct from the Indian Flora -- of course a larger knowledge of China may affect this result, but I fancy it would substantiate the claim.

The Malayan Flora is I think pretty well defined in from Luzon on the N. to Timor on the S, & for Sumatra on the W to New Guinea & its islands on the E. As to New Caledonia I do not know enough about it -- Possibly it goes with New Zealand & the Pacific. Manchuria & Mongolia are I suspect Siberia or Sinico – Siberian. I am heartily glad that the Bengal Flora advances. You will be lucky if you get off without pecuniary loss. The trunk of Phoenix robusta will be most acceptable. Dyer*3 has gutted all the sheds at the back of the Orangery (Woods Museum) & throw them into one long room accessible from the Orangery, for trunks of Palms & the like. Vol ii of Cooke's Bombay Flora is out*4. There are only 6 species not in the Fl[ora] B[ritist] India which speaks volumes for Stocks & Dalzell*5

but nothing for their successors. There must still be much novelty in that quarter. Woodrow alone has contributed a few new things. Will nobody work up the Indian Podostemons -- ? Have you observed that they are absent from all glacier-fed rivers, however far from their sources? Utricularia wants working up very badly indeed -- from autopsy[?], vivisection[?]. I suppose you have come across the description of the 2d. sp. of Decaisnea, of w enina D. Fargesii of Franchet*6 of W. China, it is now flowering at Kew. This reminds me to ask, is, or is not, India for its area very poorly represented in endemic genera? Thanks for kind enquiries, I am perfectly well except for dulness[stet] of of[stet] hearing; & of taste & small since my influenza 2 year ago, which I attribute to the Doctor´s stuffs[?]! -- I feel as if I had more to do than

ever in my life; the sketch, I am drawing up of my father's life & labour for the Annals, is very laborious, I can only get at it through his enormous correspondence. The history of his capture of Kew, after 3 years hand work, is most curious. Luckily he kept his father in law, Dawson Turner, up to every movement of the powers, who wanted to abolish the Gardens, or to retain them. This work has stopped my study of Impatiens. With Lady Hookers best regards[.] Ever sincerely yours | Jos.D Hooker [signature] Gamble*7 is busy at printing his Forest Flora. The maker of the Kew Micrometer is A. Baird, 33-39 Lothian Street Edinburgh. Price 5/6 or 6/6 I forget which in white metal.