358 THE EETUKN FEOM INDIA 



you, and I am half inclined to send it to the Crimea [Munro 

 was then a Major and on active service], as if you are obliged 

 or inclined to throw it away we can give you another. 

 Thomson paid all the expenses of printing, pubhshing, and 

 distributing, and I have offered the E.I.C. to continue and 

 conclude it, if they will only pay at the rate of £200 for 

 every 1000 species described, and I offer to get it printed 

 and published free of all further expense to them and of 

 any remuneration to the authors, also I would engage 

 myself to stick to it for ten years at that rate. Hitherto 

 they have given Thomson no reimbursement for any of his 

 expenses, though he spent a year beyond his furlough at it 

 upon no pay at all. 



The financial fate of the book was very disappointing. 

 It is recorded in another letter to Munro, December 21, 1856. 



I am so disheartened about Flora Indica and the knavish 

 conduct of the Court of Directors, that I have done nothing 

 more to it ; as soon, however, as I get Fl. Tasman. off my 

 hands I shall return to it with zest ; and devise some dodge 

 to give John Company a Eoland for his Oliver. You are 

 aware, I think, that after paying all the expenses of the 

 1st vol. we put a merely nominal price on the 130 copies 

 we put out for sale (after giving away 120), and that John 

 Company, after refusing to subscribe for copies, or promote 

 the work, or repay the authors, on hearing how cheap it 

 was, bought wp 100 co'pies unknown to us, which threw the 

 work out of print, and left us £200 out of pocket, and our 

 object defeated ! I never was so sold in my hfe. I have 

 begged and implored in vain that they give back the copies, 

 and I have offered back not only the money but to give 

 them gratis 100 copies of the Introductory Essay. As to 

 poor Thomson, they wiU not give him Is. for time or labour 

 or expenses. Have not we a good growl ? 



The political sequel of 1857 of course precluded any scheme 

 of tit for tat. Hooker enjoyed the grim suggestion that the 

 dissolution of the East India Company was a retribution for 

 this meanness as well as other more serious shortcomings. 



After Thomson's return to India the two friends continued 

 to work together, and from 1858-61 pubHshed in the Journal 



