PROGE.ESS OF THE INDIAN FLORA 359 



of the Linnean Society the * Praecursores ad Floram Indicam : 

 being sketches of the natural families of Indian plants, with 

 remarks on their distribution, structure, and aflinities.' But 

 with Thomson's departure and Hooker's appointment as 

 Assistant Director at Kew, the greater work was inevitably- 

 laid aside, and remained on the shelf for fifteen years, during 

 which his only Indian work of importance was a considerable 

 share in preparing Thwaites' ^ Enumeration of Ceylon plants 

 (1858-64). But in 1870, the India Council was moved to 

 take an interest in the matter, mainly through Mr. (afterwards 

 Sir) Mountstuart Grant Duff,^ with whom Hooker had some 

 correspondence the previous year on Indian Forestry and 

 Botany. The Duke of Argyll ^ also, Secretary for India, had 

 scientific interests. Thus Hooker obtained support when he 

 pointed out that the Indian Government had sanctioned the 

 much needed Flora in 1863, but workers were wanted. The 

 matter had sHpped so entirely from ofiScial ken that the India 

 Office could not even find the record of this official letter written 

 six years before, and had to ask Hooker for a copy of it. 



T. Thomson, the natural continuat^pr of the work, was 

 out of health, and in any case was bent on discussing details 

 at impracticable length. There was no help for it ; Hooker 

 met the renewed interest of the India Council by assuming 

 the responsible editorship, and with the help of a staff of 

 collaborators made a new start. Twenty-seven years of further 



1 George Henry Kendrick Thwaites (1811-82), beginning life as an account- 

 ant, devoted himself to entomology and botany, especially the cryptogams, 

 wherein his microscopic discoveries were ahead of his time. Most important 

 was his determination of the algal nature of diatoms. For thirty years (1849- 

 79) he was in charge of the Ceylon botanical gardens at Peradenyia, publishing 

 an ' Enumeratic Plantarum Zeylaniae ' (1859-64) which won him his F.R.S. 

 He was also responsible for the successful cultivation of cinchona and other 

 economic plants in Ceylon from 1860 onwards. 



2 Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant DufiE (1827-1906) was Under Secretary 

 of State for India 1868-74, and for the Colonies 1880-1, when he was appointed 

 Governor of Madras 1881-6. His series of Diaries contain many literary, 

 personal,- and political reminiscences. 



2 The eighth Duke of Argyll (1823-1900) was a vigorous Liberal politician 

 and capable administrator who ultimately broke with his party over the Irish 

 question. Between 1868 and 1874 he was Secretary of State for India. From 

 his earliest days he was interested in science, especially geology, in which he 

 did some original work ; but his chief activity was as a polemical upholder of 

 ideas left stranded by the progress of science. 



