1. The letter was written prior to March 1890 when the volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, to which Hooker refers in the letter, was published.
2. John Gilbert Baker FRS (1834--1920). Worked in the library and the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1866--1899 and was Keeper of the Herbarium from 1890--1999. He wrote handbooks on many plant groups including the Irideae (1892).
3. Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The magazine was first published in 1787 by William Curtis and has been published continuously for over 200 years, although between 1984-94 it had a change of title to The Kew Magazine. Each 4-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed, but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described. It is regarded as the greatest serial of botanical illustration ever produced.
4. Possibly James Wheeler Woodford Birch (1826 -- 1875) A British colonial official who was assassinated in the Malay state of Perak in 1875, an event that led to the outbreak of the Perak War and ultimately to the extension of British political influence over the Malay Peninsula.
5. Perak and Penang are states in the northwest of peninsular Malaysia.
6. William Botting Hemsley FRS (1843--1924). British botanist who trained in horticulture and botany at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As Herbarium clerk he worked with Bentham on the Flora australiensis. He worked independently at Kew publishing work on the flora of Central America, China and tropical Africa which won him recognition and numerous honours. He returned to Kew in 1889 as Herbarium Assistant for India and served as Keeper of the Herbarium from 1899--1908.
7. Nicholas Edward Brown (1849--1934). English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents and plants of the South African Cape. He worked in the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and was Assistant Keeper from 1909--1914. He was awarded honours in South Africa in recognition of his work on the South African flora and a number of his plants bear the specific name 'nebrownii'.
8. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer (1843-1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1885-1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He previously held professorships at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Royal College of Science for Ireland and the Royal Horticultural Society. He married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
9. L. Reeve & (and) Co., Publishers. The founder, Augustus Lovell Reeve (1814--1865), was considered the leading natural history publisher of his time and he dealt with the Hookers, the geologist Charles Lyell and the naturalist Alred Russell Wallace. He was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society and the Geological Society but was unsuccessful in becoming a fellow of the Royal Society. The third series of the Botanical Magazine, subtitled 'The plants of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and of other botanical establishments in Great Britain', launched by Sir William Hooker in 1845, was acquired by Reeve & (and) Co. When Lovell Reeve died and the firm passed to his partner, Francis Lesiter Soper, Sir Joseph Hooker took over as editor.
10. Sir George King (1840--1909). Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta and cinchona cultivation in Bengal, 1871--1898. First Director of the Botanical Survey of India, 1890--1898. King was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1901. He was recognized for his work in the cultivation of cinchona and for setting up a system for the inexpensive distribution of quinine throughout India via the postal system.
11. The Flora of British India. Editor Joseph Dalton Hooker assisted by various botanists. Published in 8 volumes between 1872 and 1897 by L. Reeve & (and) Co., London.
12. William Roscoe (1753 --1831). He was born in Liverpool and left school at the age of 12. He had an extraordinarily varied early career as a bookseller, solicitor, abolitionist, MP, collector, banker,businessman - not all of which were successful. He was involved in the creation of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens and in the 1820s published his important work, Monandrian Plants of the Order Scitamineae (now known as the Zingiberales): Chiefly Drawn from Living Specimens in the Botanical Gardens at Liverpool.
13. William Roxburgh (1751--1815). Scottish surgeon employed by the East India Company initially in Madras where he met Johann Gerhard Konig (a pupil of Linnaeus). In addition to his medical duties Roxburgh was the Company Naturalist and Botanist and moved to Calcutta to become superintendent of the Botanic Gardens there - a post he held for 20 years. He was successful in cultivating introduced plants and native wild plants for Indian agriculture. He sent specimens and drawings of Indian species to Sir Joseph Banks and his catalogue of Indian plants was eventually published in three volumes of Flora Indica. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1799.

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