52 PBOOEUmNGS OF THE 



on to 200 — and am now at China proper, from wlience I have 

 140 species, of wliich not a dozen are natives of India ! 1 do 

 not know which is the more diflicult task — to remove and 

 dissect a flower, or to dassify the species, or to describe their 

 variable and grotesque organs for many points in which there is 

 no teclnilcal terminolog)\ Many single ilowers of these curious 

 species especially took 2 and even 3 hours to lay out the parts for 

 drawing and description — and after all is done I doubt whether 

 what I see, draw, and describe will fit in with the living flower ! As 

 it is, I defy the acutest botanist to tell me fron) the best dried 

 specimens whether there are 2 or 4 lateral sepals, whether the 

 anthers are acute or didymous, or — even approximately — the true 

 form of a single floral envelope. To get at these you must remove 

 and moisten the flowers and spread out every organ flat under 

 water. This done, I secure them all on slips of gummed paper as 

 evidences of the fidelity ? of my sketches that go w ith the analyses 

 into the Herbarium ; no reagent has helped me. 



" I have the loan of the Paris Chinese Balsams, 70 species, two- 

 thirds different from the 80-90 species of the Herb. Kew. I find 

 the bracts (as to situation) a prime character. Indeed, you may 

 divide the genus into two groups, one with the lower pedicel of 

 the raceme bracteate at the base, as in most, or ebracteate, as in 

 Noli-me-tangere — the latter are few in India but abound in China. 

 Of course the 1-flowered species puzzle you, but that is a detail ! 



" After the bracts I think the anthers come next, but these are 

 so small and so crushed in dried flowers that the getting at their 

 form is often a long affair. Lastly, the sectional character of one 

 region won't do for another ; which is no A^onder when you con- 

 sider that of some 64 species of India AV^. of the Bay of Bengal 

 not 5 are found in Burma and countries E. of the Bay, and only 

 2 or 3 in China. 



"I will bore you no further — my head is as twisted as a balsam 

 flower and as upside down." 



Almost everything Hooker undertook was conceived on the 

 grand scale and carried through with a tenacity and continuity of 

 driving power that was simply marvellous. AVhat was true of 

 the Indian Flora applied also to the Antarctic. Though interrupted, 

 this was brought to a triumphant conclusion in the ' Introductory 

 Essay to tlie Flora of Australia,' published in 1859. This, no 

 doubt, was Hooker's most brilliant effort, and it appeared just at 

 the right moment. In it are discussed the general phenomena 

 of variation in plants and the distribution of plants in space and 

 time. Then follows the detailed handling of a special case — that 

 of the Australian Flora. The headings of the sections in a single 

 chapter will serve to illustrate the topics considered : — Circum- 

 scription of area of species, and causes of it; lielative distribution 

 of natural groups of plants ; Insular floras, and analogies between 

 them and mountain floras, and between the geological ages of 



