EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS. 



xix 



I have imbibed all the important parts with the hope of bringing 

 them to bear on Botany, which is in a shameful state. One talks of 

 the typical nature of polypetalous or monopetalous plants ; another 

 ridicules the idea, because as he wisely says, some polypetalous plants 

 are monopetalous, and vice versa, ! ! he objects, in fact to what consti- 

 tutes the great value of a character, its mode of variation. All 

 Swainson's propositions appear to me philosophical and highly pro- 

 bable, but none of the present generation have eyes young enough to 

 bear such a flood of light as he has thrown upon them. There 

 are faults I acknowledge, but a man who writes for money does not 

 always write for fame ; rapid writing and much more rapid pub- 

 lishing is a vast evil, but one which is too often unavoidable. I 

 have four or five drawings of fish, one of the spotted carnivorous 

 carp, the most carnivorous type of all except Opsarion, and perhaps a 

 new subgenus ;* one of the Sir-i-Chushme and Khyber Oreinus, and 

 a Perilamp with two long cirrhi on the upper lip. I intend in my 

 travels now I am alone, to stop at every fertile place. I am as- 

 certaining the limit of the inferior snow in these latitudes, which 

 I fancy will be 3,500 feet. Is it not curious that here 1,000 feet 

 above Jallalabad we have had no snow, while at Jallalabad there has 

 been abundance. I attribute it to the narrowness of the valley at 

 this place, and to the forest. When I glance at the subject of botani- 

 cal geography, how astounding appears our ignorance ! we have no 

 data, except to determine the mere temperature and amount of rain : 

 yet men well persist in the rage for imperfect description of undescribed 

 species, and pay no attention to what is one of the most impor- 

 tant agents in preserving things as they are in our planet, — i. e. 

 vegetation. On this point Swainson is less happy than on others 

 when he ascribes such importance to temperature, and points out 

 the fact that countries in the same latitudes, and having the same 

 temperatures, produce different animals." 



Cabul, September 25th, 1839. 



44 1 am just on the eve of re-entering Cabul from a visit to Bamean, 

 a singular place on the other side of the Hindoo-koosh, celebrated 

 for its idols and caves. It has amply repaid a march of 106 miles 



* Racoma nobilis, Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. Vol. ii, p. 577. t. xv fig. 4. Sub- 



fam. SCHIZOTHOKACIN/E. 



