Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC976
The Camp, Sunningdale, Berkshire, United Kingdom
BUR/1/1 f.94
Burkill, Isaac Henry
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
8-12-1906
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Letters to I. H. Burkill
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
4 page letter over 1 folio
 
Transcript


Dec[embe]r 8 1906
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE. Dear Mr Burkill*1 I have this day received your packet with 28 sheets of Impatiens from Kew. Most beautiful specimens, of which I will send you the names as soon as I can. I think that several at least are quite new, & (and) are very interesting things. If you go again to Sikkim & (and) can get into the interior, please look out for some very insignificant species growing amongst grass & (and) other herbages, & (and) of which I have only seen scraps collected by C.B.L. or King's Collectors. What of these I collected were all lost, as part of a coolies load of specimens which I sent down to Darjeeling from Lachen in the

Page 1


Dec[embe]r 8 1906
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE. Dear Mr Burkill*1 I have this day received your packet with 28 sheets of Impatiens from Kew. Most beautiful specimens, of which I will send you the names as soon as I can. I think that several at least are quite new, & (and) are very interesting things. If you go again to Sikkim & (and) can get into the interior, please look out for some very insignificant species growing amongst grass & (and) other herbages, & (and) of which I have only seen scraps collected by C.B.L. or King's Collectors. What of these I collected were all lost, as part of a coolies load of specimens which I sent down to Darjeeling from Lachen in the

Page 2

middle of the rainy season & (and) which arrived in the state of papier mache & (and) had to be thrown away.
Mr. Meebold*2, who I believe you saw in Calcutta, writes to me most gratefully for the names of his N.M. Hind. Balsams, one of which was new. He tells me that next year he is going to the Lushai, Manipur, & (and) Chir. Hills, where a glorious harvest of Impatiens awaits him. It is a pity that he should not be forestalled by Indian Botanists.
I do wish that you could get to the Nepal Flora. Surely now that Surveyors have been admitted to take bearings from hills 10000 ft high near Katmandu, there should be no difficulty in getting leave for a Botanist to go

Page 3

there.
Then there is the whole coast range of Arracan to be visited, & (and) the ranges of East Burma, down to Mergui & (and) above all the Isthmus of Kra, where or whereabouts the Burman Flora is replaced by the Malayan. But botanical exploration has gone to sleep in India in any large sense -- the Botanical Survey & (and) its Records notwithstanding.
I am now deep in Chinese Balsams of the Chinese species of which the Jardin des Plantes has [1 word crossed out, illeg.] loaned me a huge collection, from E. Tibet to [1 word illeg.], full of interesting novelties. There seems to be no affinity between the Indian & (and) Chinese species. As yet I have found only 2 or 3 species common to both locations. As a rule they are sectionally different.
Should you visit Burma you may

Page 4

be glad to know that there are a lot of almost littoral species from Akyab all round to the Mergui Archip[elago].
I had a new one sent to me the other day, from within a stone's throw of the sea at Akyab. They are mostly very insignificant. Wallich*3 found 7 in ditches at Rangoon, & (and) Lace*4 sent me a beautiful new species from a little way inland from Rangoon.
But I fear I bore you. If ever you want a Balsam named, just send me a specimen by post & (and) I will do my best; one stiff card board is enough if the specimen be not too big.
I hope you will keep on observing the habits & (and) modi[?] of pollination by insects. How is it that I never by any chance find an ant or other insect entrapped in the flowers -- not even in your ant--loving I. tripctata[?] from [1 word illeg.].
V[er]y sincerely[?] y[our]s | Jos. D. Hooker [signature] *5P.S. Prain*6 has just sent me your letter to him with valuable notes on the specimens, these I will copy & (and) place the copies with the specimens.

ENDNOTES

1. Issac Henry Burkill (1870-1965), English botanist who primarily worked in India and Singapore with a focus on economic botany. Was employed as Herbarium Assistant and later Principle Herbarium Assistant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew between 1897-1901. 2. Alfred Meebold (1863-1952), German botanist, writer and anthropologist who travelled to India three time from 1904 and New Zealand in 1928. 3. Nathaniel Wallich (1786--1854), Danish surgeon who in 1815 was made superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden. When he returned to England in 1847, he had done immense work as a botanical explorer, and brought back vast collections, the final distribution of which was completed by Hooker. 4. John Henry Lace (1857-1918), English botanist who worked for the Indian Forest Service from 1881 and between 1908 and 1913 was Chief Conservator of Forests in Burma. 5. The wording from here to the end of the letter is written vertically up the left-hand margin of page 4. 6. David Prain (1857-1944), Scottish physician and botanist who held the position of Curator and later Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta and in 1905 took the position of Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew until 1922. Prain also held the Presidency of the Linnean Society between 1916-1919.
Please note that work on this transcript is ongoing. Users are advised to study electronic image(s) of this document where possible. If users identify any errors in the transcript, please contact archives@kew.org.

Powered by Aetopia