December, 1884, appointed officiating Director of Public Instruc- 
tion in Bengal. In March, 1885, he was transferred as Inspector 
of Schools to the province of Assam, where he served till his 
retirement at the age of 55 in 1887. 
Mr. Clarke early developed an inclination towards field-botany. 
While at Cambridge he paid several visits to the north of 
England, some to Scotland and to Switzerland, and one, in 1862, 
to Madeira. During most of these excursions," as his private 
collections show, he collected plants largely, but his principal 
field was North Hampshire, his own country. Before leaving for 
India he had prepared a list of the plants of his birthplace, 
Andover, which he primed in Calcutta in LSbU As an Inspector 
of Schools he had ample opportunities during his official tours 
for studying the vegetation of the plains of Bengal. He supple- 
mented these by vacation journeys to other parts of India. His 
temporary connection with the Royal Botanic Garden at Calcutta 
enabled him to study the material in the Herbarium attached to 
that institution, but the pressure of official and administrative 
duties leit him less time for sustained botanical work than he 
would have wished, and he occasionally complained that he was 
able to do less real botanical work during a year of this superin- 
p than he could accomplish in a month in his travelling 
d did, how- 
tte foundation for at least two of his published works, 
those on i i %eme and on the i naian Q om . 
te, published in 1874. At this time too he worked very 
thoroughly through the Indian Urticaceae It may serve a 
useful purpose if a brief epitome of Mr. Clark. .'s various Indian 
journeys be given here. 
Mr. Clarke was at first appointed to the Eastern Bengal School 
division, where the only practical mode of conveyance is by boat. 
During the wanderings of two and a half years he made 
ollections, which reached more than 7,000 numbers. 
At tnis time he appears to have bion to the 
■■tcraeon which he made critical observations Karly in 
owLfn K ^^Jf of hi * collections from 1 ! astern Bengal 
owing to the wreck of his boat. No , i 1 1 May of 
• was again collecting in Sylhet, and in September be 
\rtmo • I Pay - a Vi8it t0 the Madhopur jungles in Western 
^S^X t T? , 1 *?* Where low hi^, densely covered 
the ^Bengal alb, vh^ ^ °! the * l P thr0Ugh 
Sikkttn wJ Z ' , ln ^S^t, 1869, he paid his first visit to 
phntaTion oh* k? f*? 1 * enga * ed on hi « work at the Cinchona 
he was able to rnl ° d ° f UCh Meeting. In October, however, 
a pals near buff * r l Pld maiv:l - rhe Yakla ' 
numbers now exceeding Untin . " » ,„« 
oolong in Barisal^eZ':.'. ^ % 
