THOMSON AS COLLABORATOR 357 



Thomson and I [writes Hooker to Bentham, October 10, 

 1852] are not at all likely to quarrel about the limits of the 

 species, which I hold that we should do if we were improper 

 lumpers quite as much as if we were hair-splitters. 



But the spade work was very heavy. By November, 



we have done a vast deal to the Malayan Flora, but not 

 nearly got through the Khassya bundles. Thomson finds 

 the arrangement of his own N.W. parts, which is not yet in 

 Nat. Ords ! a much heavier task than he dreamt of. We are 

 working steadily on, however. 



But Thomson was constantly being called away by the 

 claims of ailing relations ; his powers of persevering concen- 

 tration had been sapped by much illness in India, and at the 

 turn of the year 1853-4, Hooker writes in despondent mood 

 to Bentham : 



He cannot work except under the very strongest stimulus, 

 and every advantage being put under his nose, it was so 

 in India, there was no inducing him to study a plant though 

 so keen and admirable a collector. ... As to Flora Indica, 

 I have no idea when Part I will be out, and between Thom- 

 son's excessive scrupulosity, his natural slowness, and his 

 matchless procrastination, I see very little chance of fits 

 appearance under x months. The consequences of working 

 by fits and starts tell very heavily, for it requires the same 

 work to be gone over again and again. An immense intro- 

 duction is nearly written, but also so by fits and starts that 

 Mrs. Hooker has to go it all over, and it sometimes takes an 

 hour to unravel a page of the MS. I have taken "up the 

 distribution of my own plants in earnest, and dropped Flora 

 Indica altogether as hopeless under present circumstances. 



Nevertheless the book, as has been said, appeared in 1855. 

 It is described in a letter to Munro, November 8, 1855 : 



The first volume of Flora Indica is finished and consists 

 of 2 parts, 280 pages of introductory matter, and as much of 

 description, extending from Eanunculaceae to Fumariaceae ; 

 it cost Thomson and me the best part of two years' hard 

 labour and will, I hope, prove. useful. We have a copy for 



VOL. I 2 A 



