386 FINAL BOTANICAL WOKK 



until you moisten and dissect ; and I need not say that 

 this is a most laborious process and one destructive of 

 specimens, owing to the extreme delicacy of the tissues, the 

 shocking state of the specimens in so many cases ; owing too 

 to the grievous carelessness with which the specimens are 

 glued down, it often takes an hour to get out a flower from 

 under the leaves ! and two or even four to dissect it. ... 

 Of course all has to be done under water on the stage of the 

 microscope. 



I must now examine Brit. Mus. specimens, re-examine 

 Gamble's, and get specimens or notes on De Candolle's 

 species so as to identify them, for Wallich's individual 

 names apply to 3 or 4 plants so awful is the mess in his 

 herb. 



So, too, the Calcutta collection of Sikkim Balsams was 



deficient in species, the specimens carelessly collected, very 

 badly dried, and literally ruined by the glue pot. . . . The 

 fact is, that except myself, I doubt if any collector in Sikkim 

 laid in the specimens [i.e. into drying paper] with his own 

 hands, and no one has drawn a species except a few by Cath- 

 cart's artist, and more by myself. [Of Roylei] though found 

 by me in abundance more than 50 years ago, there was not 

 a specimen in Herb. Calcutta ! 



However, he had been able to write .a little earlier, * Happily 

 my eyes are as good as ever, and my hand as steady ; patience 

 ought to be inexhaustible/ and he was not to be disappointed 

 in his expectations of the material that was collected under 

 Mr. Duthie's new instructions, though * I should value even 

 more some observations, which only a botanist like yourself 

 could make, on the variation of species on the spot.' 



When these arrived in November 1900, Hooker was 

 enthusiastic. 



The specimens are splendid, quite enchanting, and the 

 floral detached organs all that could be desired. Mr. Inayat 

 has indeed done well. 



He set to work upon this ' inestimable ' material * with 

 rare pleasure,' all day and every day except one a week when 

 he went to Kew for the Botanical Magazine. 



