Myrung Khassya Mts
Oct 21/[18]52
Mr dear Father
I wrote to you by last mail from the Jyntea country, where we spent a week or two, a good deal to the East[war]d of Churra [Cherrapunji]. I have received no letters for some time past, though I do not doubt you have written & that the news is somewhere or other. By the last Marseilles I was told the paper continued the news of your having been at Osborne house; though whether as a guest or on some business of the Exhibition (as I guess) I do not know. any--how I congratulate you much sincerely on the honor, the highest of its kind you could receive. I am sure you deserve being taken high notice of & as a sort of reward for a long period of active usefulness in a public department the circumstance is equally gratifying to you & to your affectionate son. A Southampton is in since but no letters yet for me & another Marseilles

is daily expected.
We have enjoyed our excursion (not yet finished) very much though [Thomas] Thomson I am sorry to say has been very poorly, bilious & dyspeptic. pray say nothing of this however, but he is far from strong. Amongst our best plants are the Nepenthes, which appears to me very different from & much handsomer than N. distillatoria, as much so as N. rafflesiana is to this. It grows in open grassy hills straggling on the ground, a foot or two long in a very moist climate. I sent 50 excellent young plants to Churra where my friend Lieutenan]t Raban had them potted for me & sent some in beautiful order to Falconer by Mr Inglis who went to Calcutta [Kolkata] a few days ago. By the same mail opportunity I send two loads of the Vanda coerulea, the most superb Orchid of this or perhaps any other county. I have two more loads

to go. Falconer will take care of the transmission of the strong ones to you. Of seeds you are I hope receiving lots from me as I am weekly sending packets to Calcutta for transmission. Oaks are now ripening & I am planting some & sending others down to be planted in wards cases at the Calcutta Gardens -- also Palms.
We meet Lobb here, we arriving on the same day from Jyntea as he did from Nungklow -- we spent the evening & following morning most pleasantly, but he would not stay even a day with us, though in no hurry, it appears odd to me he talks very slightingly of the plants & seeds as usual & to judge by what he says he cannot be worth 6d to Veitch & Co. His plants he says die en route to Calcutta & that it is almost useless sending roots bulbs or cuttings straight home from there.
In this he is I am sure quite

correct they should all be overhauled in Calcutta, the dead ones thrown away & if possible the living restored a little He says my Nepenthes is distillatoria & may be right, but if so, it is greatly handsomer than even McNab's specimen. I found a single specimen of Apostasia in Jyntea & a little of a new species of Falconers curious genus Gamoplexis also a curious small plantain with scarlet erect spike, as well as the fruit tomentose -- I sent lots of ripe seeds. Also Hydropeltis a new Polyosma several new Sonnerilas[sic] 2 fine Aristolochias -- Hexameria -- a new hermaphrodite flowered genus allied to vallisneria wh[ich]. Tom has been examining, a quite new Hamamelid, (the 3'd of these hills & diff[eren]t. from any of Griffiths) a fine magnolia, 2 new Burmanias Erycibe, Tupistra &c. From here after Lobb left we went again to Nunklow, & have just returned with however no great novelties from that quarter wh[ich]. we have

pretty well exhausted. Amongst others you will be glad to hear of two Podostemum (Hydrobryum Endl.) probably both Griffith's species. The plants are annual not evident till August & nor do they flower till October, they always grow in the very rapid rotten deep water & so cannot be got till the rivers are low. I am satisfied that I never saw one in Sikkim *1 where the waters are probably too cold. We have examined both & believe that their true affinity has never been hitherto guessed; at least our ideas are wildly different from those of our predecessors & as we think we can afford to speak more positively than they did, we may be right at any rate we are agreed as far as we can be with such slender materials. Cardiopteris we have been examining very carefully in all its stages & have a pretty good history of it -- It is certainly a most wonderful plant -- odd in every part. I wonder what Thomas will do with it. We have also another fine Sabia a reasonably odd genus too, I think I

have 5 species now. The season is now past for Botany in these upper grounds the grasses withering Fern (Pteris) brown, Birch shedding it's leaves & other signs of winter fast approaching. Still we have some epiphytical Orchideae to get before returning to Churra in a week, when we pack up & are off for Sylhet & Chittagong.
I am selecting woods & big things for you as well as I am able, but the cost of inland carriage is very great & of course the gov[ernmen]t. will not consider that -- The oak woods are fine & I have a good log of pine & all Palms, Bamboos & long grasses put up 8 feet long, Tree ferns Cycas & Pandani of the same size & come much larger. The freight to England will be very heavy, but as that will not be out of our pockets I do not care. I am now putting up whole specimens

of the Sacchara on this terai & Arundo[?] folding them to lengths of 8 feet. The billets of wood are 3 feet to 4 feet --. The Palms & Pandani & Tree Ferns as big as I can get transported. Thomson is a most active help in also these matters & as he often goes out when I am drawing in doors you will be largely indebted to his aid[.]
Booth is I believe at Goahatty [Guwahati], or perhaps on his way to Duphla, where I wish him all success -- I never have any communication with him except a letter from his agent, directed by him about ordering me to send back to him some wards cases which I had Falconers directions to take from his (Booth's) things then on their way to Dorjiling [Darjeeling] where he did not go. As the said cases were suplied both part for Booth & part for myself I of course civilly refused to give them up. I suppose he is not much of a gentleman or perhaps it is only Yankieism. I have

not a conception what he has done is doing or is likely to do, except get a fever if he means to be of much service as a collector in Duphla County. Jenkins says he is fever-proof -- a physical condition I have no belief in. Simons is employing 6 collectors for me in the Assam Terai & I have forwarded him the money £20-- after which I can stand no more.
I have put plenty of specimens of bulbs Podostemum into spirits as you requested (a bottle of each) & also collected stones with the plant growing on them, but these latter look no better than dead Marchantia[?] shrivelled on a wall. I have no news Campbell is well & writes me all Sikkim news, the Dewan is trying to get the Chinese to attack us & will I should say probably be put in the stocks at Lhassa, for his pains. The emperor has sent a tremendous wigging to the Rajah for his conduct to us & says if it happens again & they show their noses in Thibet [Tibet] the Dewan & Singtam Soubah shall be taken to Lhas Pekin with ropes round their necks, he adds we the English gentlemen were entitled to the highest respect from the Rajah & all his people. who have wantonly insulted the English gov[ernmen]t. Campbell sends 3 apricot stones from Lhassa, from Tcheba Lama. tell Brown I have the nucleus of a Lhassa collection at last. Mrs Campbell is very weak & C[ampbell]. proposes sending her home in spring. Hodgson is very ill. I fear in mind as well as body, but for my sake do not talk of this.
Eve your most affect[ionate] Son | Jos D Hooker [signature]