INTRODUCTION. ik 
I shall never forget the pleasure our first meeting afforded us. It was in the forests of the outer range 
of mountains, on his arrival; he was toiling up the steep ascent to Dorjiling, walking beside his pony, 
himself and his servant laden with flowering plants and ferns, as I was descending on an excursion to 
the Terai, at the foot of the mountains. Our conference was very brief, but it was an earnest of many 
longer ones. On my return to Dorjiling a few weeks afterwards, I found Mr. Cathcart occupying a large 
house, surrounded by a broad verandah, from which baskets of Orchids, etc., were suspended, and on the 
floor of which living plants of all kinds were piled in profusion. He had already established a corps of 
Lepcha collectors, who scoured the neighbouring forests, descending to 2000 feet, and ascending to 8000, 
bringing every plant that was to be found in flower; and in his house were two artists busily at work. He 
told me his plans, and invited my co-operation; he intended to procure more artists, the best that could 
be obtained, from Calcutta, especially those skilled ones, who had been trained under Wallich and Griffith 
in the Botanic Garden, and to draw every plant of interest that he or I could procure. Knowing that a 
Flora of the Himalaya was a work which I contemplated, he most liberally offered me the use of all the 
drawings on my return to England, and expressed a wish that I should direct his artists to the plants best 
worth figuring, and instruct them in perspective, and in drawing the microscopic details, the points in 
which native artists are mainly deficient. __ 
Mr. Cathcart continued to reside at Dorjiling and in the neighbourhood till the winter of 1850; during 
the latter part of the time he kept as many as six artists steadily employed, and accumulated a collection of 
nearly one thousand drawings. For the last year he resided at Leebong, a singularly beautiful spot, about 
1000 feet below Dorjiling and 6000 feet above the sea. His house occupied a mountain spur that projected 
from that on which Dorjiling is built, overhanging the steep forest-clad gorge of the Great Runjeet river, 
5000 feet below, and descending in steep jungly slopes on either hand. Through these forests he had caused 
the natives to cut paths, directing their operations with all the taste and judgment of an experienced and 
skilful landscape gardener. 'These openings led through the tangled jungle, and wound amongst tall trunks 
of giant timber-trees, which were clothed with climbing Palms, wild Vines, Peppers, Pothos, Hodgsonia, 
and Jpomea, and laden with masses of Orchids and Ferns, suddenly emerging on eminences commanding 
views of two hundred miles of snowy mountains, rising range behind range in dazzling beauty, and again 
descending by zigzags to cascades fringed with Ferns and Mosses, and leading thence along the margins of 
rippling streams, overshadowed by Tree-Ferns, Bamboos, and wild Plantains. 
In such scenes Mr. Cathcart passed nearly two years, spending the whole day, when fine, in the open 
air. His health not permitting of his taking strong exercise, his explorations were confined to the paths 
along which he could ride his pony; and his habit was to have his meals prepared for him at some favourite 
spot in the forest, where he might tranquilly admire the beauties of the surrounding vegetation and the 
grandeur of the distant prospect, and at which his collectors would rendezvous with baskets full of rare and 
beautiful plants, which were poured out on the grass at his feet, and selections made from them for the 
artists. 
In February, 1851, on my own return to Calcutta, previous to embarking for England, I found Mr. 
