HIMALAYAN RHODODENDRONS ACCLIMATISED 843 



In June he spent a week in Cornwall, the guest of his 

 old friend General Sir J. H. Lefroy. 1 The sight of many 

 Himalayan rhododendrons acclimatised there rilled him with 

 enthusiasm, and he writes to Mrs. Hodgson on the 

 30th : 



Tell Brian with my love that I saw, in Cornwall, many, 

 many plants of the Rhod. Hodgsoni in the open air, 6 feet 

 across and more, and with leaves a foot long — they were past 

 flower unfortunately. They were planted in the woods and 

 throve luxuriantly. There were also noble plants of Falconeri, 

 Aucklandii, argenteum, barbatum and others — together with 

 Hodgsoni forming regular shrubberies, as if natives of the 

 soil. 



* The Club ' brought about meetings with many interesting 

 people. Mr. Gladstone, though the Ayrton trouble had taken 

 place under his administration, was always on the best of terms 

 with Hooker, and shared moreover in his passion for Wedg- 

 woods. The following impressions of a conversation with 

 him, and the inferences to be drawn from it, are of curious 

 interest. 



1 General Sir John Henry Lefroy, R.A., C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., &c. (1817- 

 90); entered the Royal Artillery 1835; in 1839 was appointed to the Observa- 

 tory for Magnetic Research in St. Helena and made the voyage in the Terror, 

 then starting in company with the Erebus for the Antarctic, a four months' 

 passage, during which was formed a lasting friendship between him and J. D. 

 Hooker. 



In 1842 he was transferred from St. Helena to the Observatory at Toronto, 

 from whence in 1843 he made a journey with only one companion to Lachine 

 and Hudson's Bay, 5475 miles, by canoes and on snow-shoes, which established 

 his reputation as a geographer and was productive of most valuable results in 

 magnetic observations. 



He returned to England in 1853 and took command of his battery, and in 

 1854 became Secretary of the Royal Artillery Institution, founded by himself in 

 1838 ; in 1854 he was appointed Scientific Adviser on Subjects of Artillery 

 and Inventions; in 1857 Inspector-General of Army Schools; in 1868 

 Director-General of Ordnance at the War Office. 



From 1871-7 he was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bermudas; 

 Governor of Tasmania 1880-2. 



Among his publications are the handbook of Field Artillery for the Use of 

 Officers, used in the Crimean War ; Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settle- 

 ment of the Bermudas or Somers Islands (1515-1685), 2 vols., 1879 ; Diary of a 

 Magnetic Survey of the Dominion of Canada, &c. 1883 ; also various scientific 

 papers. 



An obituary notice of him and his work was written by Sir Joseph Hooker 

 and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1891. 



