NO TEAVEL BOOK IN PEOSPECT 255 
In the meantime Hooker was busy in other directions. 
* If it were not for the Greenock-Hke climate,' he writes on 
April 28, ' this would be a very fine place, and I enjoy it much, 
for the vegetation is truly superb.' His new occupations were 
at first hindered by the necessity of completing the piece of 
unfinished work for his father, which he had brought with him 
from England. 
This was the Niger Flora, of which he sent home the first 
part on May 18, the remainder on July 19. This was the only 
piece of work outstanding in regard to which he felt a personal 
claim ; the rest could fairly be completed after his return; 
and so, when the way seemed clear for his journey to the 
Himalayan snows, he writes (September 12) with perfect 
unconcern : 
I saw that Lindley gave me a touch for travelling on my 
own pleasure while my Flora Antarctica is unfinished ; to 
which I can say Pooh ! 
Indeed, to the end of his stay in India, he had no 
thought of writing a book of travels or working out his non- 
botanical observations. This he repeats to Walhch in 1850 
as he had written to his father in February 1849, when 
sending him the Ehododendron notes and specimens he had 
brought back from the Sikkim-Nepal expedition. The future 
decided otherwise. 
Of them and of all my plants; MSS., and drawings, I 
beg you to make whatever use you think proper. The 
Flora Antarctica nearly broke my back ; and except the 
Floras of New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land, I do not 
contemplate any other such great work. My present 
notion is to pubhsh in the form of Icones, confining any 
large and costly illustrations to a few Natural Orders or 
Genera.^ 
In May, however, he took such opportunities as offered 
during the early part of the rains for botanical excursions 
near Darjiling. Without awaiting formal leave, he made 
^ For the success of the Rhododendron book, especially in India, see p. 326. 
