IN MEMOEIAM 
XVII 
of concentrating his attention on a new subject and not resting till 
he had got to understand it. . . . He had a wonderfully clear 
power of explaining. . . . When the discoveries of the telephone 
and microphone etc. were made, he was much interested ; and he 
amused himself by constructing a microphone and sending mes- 
sages from one end of his house to the other. Often I have spent 
some hours over it with him, and he was delightfully pleased when 
he could induce a fly to walk on the drum and listen to its foot- 
steps.’ 
Collett seems to have first become interested in botany in 1878 
during the Kuram Valley expedition, perhaps influenced by the 
late Brigade- Surgeon Aitchison, C.I.B., E.R.S. 
The latter wrote : ‘ Early in 1879, I proposed to the Quarter- 
Master-General, Major Collett, that it might prove advantageous 
to science if some one were appointed to accompany the column in 
the contemplated advance on Kabul. General Roberts at once 
recommended the proposal to superior authority, which ultimately 
resulted in my being attached to the force as botanist.’ The 
result was embodied in the important paper published in the 
‘ Journal of the Linnean Society’ (Botany, xviii. pp. 1-113). 
Late in 1879 Collett paid a brief visit to England. He wrote 
to Sir Joseph Hooker on September 16, apologising for his 
inability to deliver a letter from Aitchison in person, having ‘to 
return immediately in consequence of the news which has been 
received from Kabul.’ He adds : ‘ I had not much time when in 
Kuram for botanical pursuits, but I collected most of the plants 
which were new to me, and some of them will be forwarded to you.’ 
It was, however, about 1885 that Collett’s attention was 
seriously turned to botanical work. In the summer of that 
year the Simla Naturalists’ Society was founded. Sir Courtenay 
Ilbert, K.C.S.I., was President, and Collett was an original 
member. The present work is the fulfilment of a hope expressed 
by the President in the preface to the first number of the 
journal that one outcome of its work would be ‘ a handbook 
such as may be worthy of a district singularly rich in objects of 
interest to the naturalist, and as may furnish information to be 
sought in vain in the arid pages of a district manual.’ The society 
has been described as ‘ a small band of ardent naturalists.’ They 
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