_ BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 21 
adnexed, rather distant, cinereous, with a pale border. Spores dark, 
elliptic. 
Nearly allied to 4g. pennatus, but larger, with more distant gills, 
&e. It is also more densely clothed with down, the free flocci of which 
make pilose fascicles, 
à (To be continued.) 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
Physical Geography of SxkKIM-HiMALAYA. Extract of a letter from 
Baron Humsotpr to Sir W. J. Hooker, together with copy of a 
letter on the PHYSICAL CHARACTER of SIKKIM-HIMALAYA, addressed 
to Baron Humboldt, by Jos. D. Hooker, R.N., M.D., F.R.S., &e. 
So honourable is what follows, both to the writer of the subjoined 
letter and to the illustrious philosopher from whom the injunction to 
print it has proceeded, that, much as I fear I shall expose myself to 
the charge of vanity in giving publicity to language so highly compli- 
mentary to my son, I hope and trust I am actuated by a higher prin- 
ciple, that of justice, which forbids my withholding it. “ Laudari a 
laudato " has always been accounted a most justifiable object of ambi- 
tion; and where is there, in the world of science, a man equally Zau- 
datus as Humboldt ? 
| Extract from Baron Humboldt’s Letter * 
. Six days ago I received an admirable letter from your son, containing 
a perfect treasure of important observations, relating to the mountain- 
masses of Himalaya, their geology, meteorology, and ical geography. - 
What a noble traveller is Joseph Hooker ! What an extent of acquired — 
knowledge does he bring to bear on the observations he makes, and — 
how marked with sagacity and moderation are the views that he puts 
forward! I can neither part with such a remarkable letter, nor 
to myself the résumé which it contains of his researches in Thibet and 
on its confines; therefore I desire that it should be published, and 
correctly published, in England; and therefore do I now deposit it in 
* This is the close of a very long letter on other subjects, —much, relating to 
Fictoria regia, which will appear in another part. TAN. 
