INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. i 6 



3. Dr. Hooker's collections^ made during a botanical mission 

 to India in the years 1848, 1849, 1850, under the auspices 

 of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. Starting from 

 Calcutta, Dr. Hooker proceeded first to Behar, ascended the 

 Soane valley and crossed the Kymor range to Mirzapur, 

 descended the Ganges, and proceeded to Sikkim. The col- 

 lections made in Behar and the Gangetic valley amount 

 to about 1000 species. Dr. Hooker spent the summer of 

 1848 and the greater part of 1849 in the Sikkim and the 

 East Nipal Himalaya, during which he botanized the whole 

 country from the plains to the Tibetan frontier, and accumu- 

 lated an herbarium of 3500 species. In December, 1849, he 

 was joined by Dr. Thomson at Dorjiling, and they proceeded 

 together, in May, 1850, to the Khasia hills, where the sum- 

 mer was spent : the joint collection amounting to about 3000 

 species. In November of that year they visited Silhet and 

 Cachar, descended the Megna to the Bay of Bengal, and pro- 

 ceeded to Chittagong, returning by the Sunderbunds to Cal- 

 cutta, where they embarked for England ; this journey yielded 

 about 1000 species. 



4. A large herbarium of Peninsular plants formed by Dr. 

 Thomson's brother, the late Gideon Thomson, of Madras, 

 mainly by means of collectors. It amounts to nearly 2000 

 species, gathered partly in the plain of the Carnatic (chiefly 

 in the neighbourhood of Madras), and partly in the Nilghiri 

 and Ciirg mountains, and in the Com-talam hills. 



5. Several collections which were liberally presented to us 

 in India. These, though not extensive, were often extremely 

 valuable, being illustrative of little known regions. From Dr. 

 Jameson we received Saharunpur and Massuri plants ; from 

 Dr. Fleming a collection from the Salt-range of the Panjab ; 

 from Dr. Grant, a small herbarium of Kanawer plants ; from 

 Lieutenant Parish, a set of specimens fi'om the hills of Mandi 

 and Kulu (in the Panjab Himalaya) ; and from Mr. Simons 

 several hundred Assam species. 



As all our own materials were selected with a view to future 



