276 RETIREMENT, TO 1897 : BOTANICAL WORK 



who was to be at Kew all the autumn, arranging all prelimi- 

 naries with him. 1 



Overshadowing these secondary occupations, however, 

 came a mass of Darwinian work ; correspondence about 

 the Life which Sir Francis Darwin was preparing (1887), and 

 the arrangement and entire revision of the colossal ' Index 

 Kewensis,' Darwin's invaluable legacy to botany, which, 

 set afoot in 1886, appeared from the press during 1893-95. 

 While he was toiling over the microscope at the Indian Grasses 

 his time was drawn upon for this long task : * The huge 

 Darwinian " Index Kewensis " drags its slow length along, 

 at the rate of 2 sheets, about 2500 names, authors and 

 native countries to revise in press per week. It will take 

 1| years more to finish it.' (To La Touche, April 9, 

 1894.) 



Mention may be made of the obituaries of De Candolle, 

 1893 ; and Dr. David Lyall, his fellow Antarcticker, 1895 ; of 

 the Eulogium on Robert Brown, 1888 ; while various reviews 

 and monographs arising out of his botanical work may be found 

 in the Bibliography, of which ' Pachytheca ' 1889 may have 

 special mention. 



The new era opened enthusiastically. 



To Asa Gray 



Jan. 24, 1886. 



We are very comfortably housed now, and I have just 

 got my books into place. I find working here and at the 

 Herbarium vastly different from in the study at Kew. 

 I can now concentrate my attention (I hope I will) and 

 write off the Magazine without interruptions of all sorts ; 

 indeed I find the withdrawal from the Directorship a stupen- 

 dous relief ; and, many regrets notwithstanding, it is sweet 

 to be independent, and to be free of that thirst for power 

 and position which alone enables one to carry on official 

 business with some ease and less friction. 



1 ' Happily the foundations of it are laid, in my Flora of British India, which 

 includes the Straits Flora, but which is far too bulky a work for the use of Colon- 

 ists, and does not expressly deal with the timbers, drugs, dyes, textiles, oils, 

 waxes, and guttas ; and the nomenclature of which is in such sublime confusion, 

 that the Govt. has called for such a Flora as we shall undertake.' 



