SLOW PEOGBESS OF INDIAN BOTANY 393 



for any very great advance on it. Had the Himalaya 

 East of Sikkim, or Nepal or Burma, or the N. Hindustan 

 been explored since that period ; or had the West Himalaya 

 been analysed, or had any good local Flora been brought 

 out in the interval, there would be more or less promiscuous 

 feeding for digestion ; but except by the Forest Department, 

 I fail to see any great light thrown on the Flora of all India, 

 since the said Essay was published. 



Were it otherwise, how can you think it possible that 

 a man in his 86th year (next June), living 20 miles from 

 Kew Library and Herbarium, could face the task ? 



I agree with all you say of the ignorance, supineness, 

 obstinacy, wrong-headedness, parsimony and indolence 

 sciencewards of the political powers that be ; but I cannot 

 think that in the case of India, the best use has been made 

 of the money and opportunities that have been granted 

 for botanical research, but that is a long story, better talked 

 over than written about. 



As to an alternative issue in some Indian scientific publica- 

 tion should it prove too long for the Gazetteer, he desired 

 this to be one which would enable it to be circulated among 

 Forest Officers ' who could indicate its errors and supply the 

 hideous lacunae it shows,' a procedure which produced but 

 meagre results. He writes on January 28, 1903, to Gamble : 



I must be an ' Old Man of the Sea ' to you. I have told 

 King that my sending the article to the Calcutta Annals 

 is out of the question. He and Prain inordinately over- 

 estimate it, never having seen it ! The Annals are rightly 

 intended for plates. The article would look ridiculous in 

 Imp. Quarto, thick paper, broad margin and big type. It 

 should appear in most modest form (I had myself thought of 

 the Eecords) for wide circulation in India, calling attention 

 to the lamentable want of material for bettering such a 

 lame goose. If it has some good and new points of use 

 and interest, that is the best that could be said for it. 



In revising the Sketch during the autumn of%903, he 

 received much help from both King and Gamble in delimiting 

 and individualising the sub-provinces into which he proposed 

 to divide Burma. 



VOL. II 2 O 



