KAINFALL AND COLLECTORS 337 



and excellent ; the thermometer is hardly ever up to 80, 

 or falls below 68, at midsummer. 



Darjeeling cannot compare with Churra 500 inches and 

 more (i.e. upwards of 40 feet) of rain fell last year at Churra. 

 I do not doubt that it is the rainiest climate in the world. 



Nunklow : July 11, 1850. 



Here Tom and I have arrived at our furthest North from 

 Churra, all beyond this being very unhealthy. It is very 

 tantalising to be stuck up here, literally within one day's 

 horse ride of Jenkins, 1 whose dwelling at Gowhatty we can 

 almost see ; but the intervening Terai is deadly at this season. 

 I have written to ask if he can send me an Assam native of 

 tolerable cunning who will get me the Palms and Bamboos 

 from the Terai. I have already thirteen species of Bamboo 

 from Churra and ten from Sikkim : I believe those of the 

 two countries to be perfectly different. Unfortunately 

 they never flower, and I am determined with Tom's help, 

 and by obtaining gigantic specimens, to describe them by 

 habit, leaf, etc. 



August 23, 1850. 



What with Jenkins' and Simon's collectors here, twenty 

 or thirty of Falconer's, Lobb's, 2 my friends Kaban and Cave 

 and Inglis' friends, the roads here are becoming stripped 

 like the Penang jungles, and I assure you for miles it some- 

 times looks as if a gale had strewed the road with rotten 

 branches and Orchideae. Falconer's men sent down 1000 

 baskets the other day, and assuming 150 at the outside as 

 the number of species worth cultivating, it stands to reason 

 that your stoves in England will still be stocked. The only 

 chance of novelty is in the deadly jungles of Assam, Jyntea, 

 and the Garrows. I am therefore not spending my money 

 on Orchideae collecting but rather on Palms, Scitamineae, 

 &c., which are more difficult to procure and not sought 

 after by these plunderers. Oaks I will attend to, but they 

 are most troublesome, as not one in a thousand is worth 

 anything. 



1 Col. F. Jenkins (ft. 1833, d. before 1884) became Major-Gen. H.E.I.C.S. 

 and Commissioner of Assam, the botany of which he investigated. He sent 

 large collections of Assam plants to the Natural History Society of Cornwall. 

 Jenkinsia Acrostichum was named after him. 



2 Thomas Lobb (ft. 1847) was a botanical collector for Veitch in India and 

 Malaya. The genus Lobbia Planch, was named after him. 



