256 TO DAEJILING : FIEST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 
' a very favourite and interesting trip ' by way of the cane 
bridge over the Great Rungeet, eleven miles away, into a 
deep, steamy valley admirabl}^ illustrating the successive 
zones of vegetation from temperate to tropical, that clothed 
the steep hillsides. The bridge itself was the British boundary ; 
beyond lay Sikkim proper, where the Rajah somewhat ineffec- 
tively threatened punishment to any who guided a European, 
and where later Hooker's collectors going alone were maltreated 
by the Dewan's orders. But the inhabitants and even the 
Lamas, whose hostility had been represented as certain, were 
in reality most friendly. Indeed, on his second trip seven 
months later, the people brought supplies in em])arrassing 
superabundance. 
In this direction Hooker went as far as the junction of the 
Rungeet with the Teesta, and saw the mountains of Bhotan 
towering up over against him. 
The journey was, though not distant, a very difficult one, 
from the impracticable nature of the country, and had been 
accomplished by but one individual before ; which is, how- 
ever, mainly owing to the laziness and want of cmdosity of 
the people, and the fact of the Rajah of Sikkim forbidding all 
crossing the narrow bounds of Darjiling. [Among his spoils 
Vv'ere] tliree Bliododendrons, one scarlet, one white with superb 
foliage, and one, the most lovely thing you can imagine ; a 
parasite on gigantic trees, three yards high, with whorls of 
branches, and 3-6 immense white, deliciously sweet-scented 
flowers, at the apex of each branch. It is the most splendid 
thing of the kind I have ever seen, and more delicate than 
the others. 
... I dravv^ as many things as I possibly can, and send 
them to Falconer for transmission to you : the three first 
Magnolias, he tells me, are all new : two others I have not 
sent down : the 3 Rhododendrons are all drawn, and about 
40 other plants, somewhat rudely ; but they may give you 
some idea of the plants. 
As to his various collectors : 
The Lepchas or mountaineers of Sikkim I like extremely. 
I have two men who collect fairly and climb trees a merveille, 
