recommended the proposal to superior authority, which ultimately 

 resulted in my being attached to the force as botanist." The 

 result was embodied in the important paper published in the 

 "Journal of the Linnean Society " (Botany, xviii. pp. 1-113). 



Late in 1879 Collett paid a brief visit to England. He wrote 

 to Sir Joseph Hooker on September Ifith, apologising for his 

 inability to deliver a letter from Aitchison in person, having " to 

 return immediately in consequence of the news which has been 

 received from Kabul." He adds : " I had not much time when in 

 Kuram for botanical pursuits, but I collected most of the plants 

 which were new to me, and some of them will be forwarded 



It was, however, about 1885 that Collett'fc attention was 

 seriously turned to botanical work. In the summer of that 

 year the Simla Naturalists' Society was founded. Sir Courtenay 

 ilbert, K.C.S.I., was President, and Collett was an original 

 member. The present work is the fulfilment of a hope expressed 

 by the President in the preface to the first number of the journal 

 that one outcome of its work would be " a handbook such as may 

 be worthy of a district singularly rich in objects of interest to the 

 naturalist, and as may furnish information to be sought in vain in 

 the arid pages of a district manual." The Society has been 

 described as "a small band of ardent naturalists." They no 

 doubt confirmed Collett in his permanent devotion to botany. 

 He contributed his first botanical papers to its journal and is also 

 reported to have delivered to it a lecture on polarised light. 



Collett collected assiduously the plants of Simla and formed a 

 herbarium which he used in the preparation of this book. After 

 his death it was given by his family to Kew. In 1887-8 he was 

 in command of a brigade in Burma, and in the Southern Shan 

 States on the little-explored frontier of Upper Burma he found 

 an opportunity of breaking new ground. In A. H. Hildebrand, 

 CLE., the superintendent of the Southern Shan States, he found 

 a colleague of tastes sympathetic with his own. Collett savs : 

 " I began collecting plants in this region partly to gratify my own 

 love of botany, and partly in response to the request of my friend 

 Dr. (now Sir George) King, K.C.I.E., F.R.S." The results were 

 published in 1890 in the "Journal of the Linnean Society" 

 (Botany, xxviii. pp. 1-150). No fewer than 725 species of flower- 

 ing plants were enumerated. These were worked out at Kew and 

 published under the joint names of Collett and W. B. Hemsley. 

 The collection included two of the most remarkable plants ever 

 introduced into European gardens. Both are remarkable for the 

 size of their flowers : Rosa gigantea is the largest single-flowered 

 rose known, it is described as having flowers 5-6 inches in 

 diameter ; it climbs to the top of the tallest trees, and Collett is 

 said to have detected it at the distance of two miles by means of a 

 faeld-glass; Lonicera hildehrandiana is a honeysuckle with 

 tlowers seven inches long ; it was named in honour of his friend 

 who kindly gave much assistance in collecting," and who, after , 

 an inhnity of trouble, ultimately succeeded in transmitting living 

 seeds to Kew. In 1889 Collett had himself sent to Kew living 

 plants of two extremely remarkable orchids which he had . 

 aiscovered, Bulhophyllum racemosum and CirrhopetalumGollettiL 



