IN ME MORI AM 
XIX 
He eventually settled in London, and it must have been early 
in 1895 that he came to consult me about his projected ‘ Flora of 
Simla.’ He had a good practical knowledge of it in the field, and his 
first idea was that he might make a sort of rough draft and that 
some member of my staff might put it into a proper technical shape. 
I pointed out to him that such a collaboration would be in no 
way satisfactory, that the merit of the book would be the personal 
impress that he would give to it himself, and that I should not be 
inclined to aid the undertaking unless he undertook it single- 
handed. Collett pleaded his want of technical knowledge, but the 
real obstacle was only his excessive modesty. He was a little shy 
of coming to work amongst us with only the equipment of the 
amateur, and though possessed of indomitable pluck was diffident 
as to the result. I assured him that it was merely a question of 
learning the grammar of an unfamiliar language ; that it might be 
an irksome task for a few weeks, but that he would soon acquire 
the necessary facility and that he would then feel a new interest 
in the prosecution of his work. I promised him that his path 
should be smoothed by the willing assistance of my staff, and he 
agreed with some demur to make the attempt. I call to mind no 
similar case of a man late in life, after a course of exceptional dis- 
tinction, quietly taking the position of a pupil in another field. 
But the wisdom of my advice was abundantly justified. Collett 
stuck to his task with bulldog tenacity occasionally relieved by a 
groan. But he soon mastered his difficulties and became the 
severest critic of his own work, the early portions of which he 
entirely rewrote. For several succeeding years he worked at 
Kew with the greatest regularity, spending the best part of the 
day in the Herbarium and ending with a walk in the gardens, 
where I was often amused to find that the habit of the old Quarter- 
Master- General had not been lost and that nothing escaped his 
observant eye. 
Some failure of his health probably took place, though so im- 
perceptibly as to escape observation. The old military fire was 
roused by the outbreak of the South African war, which he 
followed with absorbing attention. His first estimates of its 
course were extravagantly optimistic, to be followed by others 
equally pessimistic. With no military knowledge but some con- 
