326 LAST DAYS IN SIKKIM 



The Ehododendrons by themselves claimed separate notice. 

 The first part of the new book,^ drawn up by his father from 

 material sent home by him, had just arrived, following the 

 eulogistic reviews, so eulogistic that they aroused Hooker's 

 mistrust as well as his curiosity. 



To return to our Ehododendrons : I have further com- 

 pleted and copied out all the descriptions ! together with a 

 catalogue raisonne of the Indian ones known to me. It took 

 me fifteen days' hard work, which I did most grievously 

 grudge, and thought worse than my captivity, and assure 

 you it needed all the stimulus of seeing, for the first time, 

 the Book itself, to keep me on to the weary hackneyed 

 Ehododendrons. As to the said book, it is above all notice 

 from the like of me. The plate of B. argenteum hkes me 

 best ; and that is not I think to be surpassed for drawing, 

 perspective, colouring and portraiture, by Bauer's Banksia. 

 It is a far grander and better book that even I expected, 

 after all its panegyrics ; and I am most heartily obliged to 

 you for giving me the hon's share of the honors, which should 

 by rights be as much your own as is the Victoria book.^ 



And he tells his mother of an appreciation from ' perfect 

 strangers ' wtiich he confessed was very gratifying. 



All the Indian world is in love with my Ehododendron 

 book, and extracts from my Tonglo journal, which I sent 

 to the Asiatic Society Journal, have been praised in all the 

 public papers. (August 8, 1849.) 



The map of his travels was another labour to complete. 



I am so busy with my plants that I grudge working at 

 the Map, and yet it must he done, whilst the materials and 

 references to my note-books are fresh in my mind. 



January 23. 



Hodgson had got a map partly ready to send by this 

 mail, but it is so very foul that both Thomson and myself 



1 The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya. (Edited by W. J. Hooker.) 

 1849-51, 14 X 7, pp. 30, pi. with descriptive text. Fol. 



* Description of * Victoria Regia," LindL, or Great Water Lily, by Sir Wm. 

 Hooker, 1837. M. D'Orbigny claims that he was the first to gather specimens 

 in 1828 in the Province of Corrientes, in a tributary of the Rio de la Plata. 

 Poeppig called it Eur yak Amazonia, 1832. 



