Sunningdale
Aug[ust] 19/[18]98
My dear Prain
The drawings of Impatiens arrived a week ago & the specimens today. Very many thanks. They are "a pretty kettle of fish", & stagger me. The number of specimens fit only for the fire is of course great. I shall go slowly on at them -- but it is clear that without carefully selected & dried specimens, or good drawings, or both, the genus cannot be satisfactorily worked up. Meanwhile, if not too late, ask your Sikkim team to send seeds by post to Kew or me. I am very

much puzzled by the paucity of Sikkim species -- they seem not to have been collected! but I have only hastily glanced through them. Many sheets are marked "please return" -- does that mean that those not so marked are to be retained for Herb[arium] Kew? I have just detected a blunder in Panicum in Fl. B.I.[Flora Brit. India] that would have turned my hair grey had it not been white already. Unaccountably I have referred P. zizanioides & its synonym to P. latifolium L.! a totally different plant. Kindly strike out the name *1 and insert the correction cdt[?] JDH*1 (vol. VII in 39) with Willis[?], Kunth, & HBK*2. also cite Gram.

Pergin[?], Sloane[?]" et. at the end of the citations. I have told Duthie of it. I find Thwaites Panicums[?] very far out. Nothing has been heard of King*3 lately. He is in the North. Ever sincerely[?] yours | Jos. D Hooker [signature]