234 THE VOYAGE TO INDIA 
I really believe he would be not only vwrtified, but hurt, if 
I resided elsewhere than under his roof while I am at Calcutta. 
On one occasion he turned out of his own chamber to give 
it to me, because I returned from Sir Lawrence Peel's house 
a day earlier than was expected. 
The only drawback to their great kindness was that, though 
he had entire freedom to follow his own pursuits, Government 
House was five miles away from his work at the Botanic Gardens, 
* and to walk there in this part of Bengal is quite out of the 
question.' 
Sir Lawrence Peel's house on Garden Keach was the Chats- 
worth of India, with its unrivalled gardens just across the river 
from the Botanic Garden, classical ground to the naturahst, 
where Hooker spent most of his time with McLelland, the 
indefatigable hciim tmens for Hugh Falconer, then on his 
way to succeed Griffith,^ a botanist distinguished alike as 
draughtsman and collector. 
As we see more of one another he opens out ; and I think 
it not difficult to understand him. He is a persevering 
Scotchman, without much ability, or powers of perception ; 
blinded by Griffith's extraordinary ability, and impressed 
with the belief that it is better to fail in following Griffith's 
views and course, than to succeed in any other more suited 
to his own powers. He has, he considers, a pious duty to 
perform, imposed on him at Griffith's dying hour, to publish 
his MSS. and drawings. This he has been doing with gi'eat 
zeal and perseverance, on a ^^Tetched salary of £500 a year at 
1 William Griffith (1810-15), a pupil of -Lindley, entered the medical 
service of the East India Company, and in 1835 was emploj^ed to report on the 
suitability of Assam for tea planting. His botanical travels took him through 
Assam and Burmah and the Khasia mountains : as surgeon he accompanied 
an embassy to Bhutan, and the army which invaded Afghanistan in 1838 and 
the following years. Appointed to Malacca, he v/as recalled to Calcutta 
(1842-4) to take charge of the Botanical C4ardens and lecture to the niedical 
students during Wallich's absence : on his return to Malacca he fell ill and 
died. 
In making his collections he aimed not at species hunting but at giving a 
general account of the Indian flora on a geographical basis : in his botanical 
studies he was more of a morphologist than a systematist, and as an accurate 
and penetrating investigator of plant life, and especially of the problems of re- 
production, he was expected by competent judges to have taken the highest 
place as a botanist had he not been cut ofi: at the age of thirty-five. 
