237 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Extracts from the private letters of Dr. Hooker, written during 
a Botanical Mission to INDIA. 
[The object of this Mission has been already stated, as fully as 
its nature will allow, in the sixth volume of the London Journal 
of Botany. It will suffice here to remark, that Dr. Hooker, at the 
recommendation of the Chief Commissioner of H.M. Woods and 
Forests, &c., has been appointed by H.M. Government to investi- 
gate the vegetable productions of certain portions of India, parti- 
cularly the mountainous regions of Himalä. He is afterwards to 
proceed to Borneo, with a similar object in view. That the public 
may be in possession of some particulars relating to Dr. Hooker’s 
progress and success, previous to the fuller narrative which will 
appear on his return, is the Editor’s object in publishing the- 
following extracts from the necessarily hastily written and familiar 
letters addressed to his friends at home. 
The First Lord of the Admiralty, with the consent of His Excel- 
lency Lord Dalhousie, the newly appointed Governor General of 
the East Indies, kindly granted a passage to Alexandria, in H.M. 
Steam-Frigate “Sidon,” destined to convey his Lordship to that 
place, ez route for Calcutta. From Suez, our traveller formed 
part of Lord D.’s suite; and it is nota little gratifying to the 
writer of this notice to reflect, that, as he was himself indebted to 
the late Countess Dalhousie for a rich Herbarium of East Indian 
and Himalayan plants, collected by her when accompanying her 
noble husband then Commander-in-Chief, on his official tours ; so 
will Dr. Hooker owe still greater obligations to the son of that 
distinguished lady, for the amplest means of prosecuting his botani- 
cal researches in the East.—Ed.] 
I. OVERLAND ROUTE TO CALCUTTA. 
H.M. Steam Frigate “ Sidon,” off Gibraltar, 
Nov. 20th, 1847. 
The Rock of Gibraltar is a truly noble object, whether in Nature 
VOL. VII. 2c 
