hoffmeister’s botany. 
379 
main stream of the Granges issues from beneath a glacier, they crossed 
a lofty pass from the Ganges basin into that of the Sutlej, entering the 
district of Kunawer by the Baspa valley. In Kunawer, they ascended 
the Sutlej valley as far as Shipke, on the borders of Chinese Tibet. 
Thence they returned to the Indian plain by Simla, just at the time 
when the invasion of British territory by the turbulent Sikh soldiery 
of the Punjab began the campaign of 1845-6. The Prince and his 
suite were present at the battle of Perozeshah, on the 21st of Dec. 
1845, in which action Dr. Ploffmeister was unfortunately killed by a 
grape shot whilst riding by the Prince’s side. 
During this journey, which had so sad and unlooked for a termi¬ 
nation, Dr. Hoffmeister was a close observer of the natural features 
of the country traversed, and made an interesting botanical collection. 
Botany was of course only one of many subjects to which his atten¬ 
tion was directed, and the travellers passed over the ground too 
hurriedly to permit of extensive collections being made. It will be 
seen from the sketch just given that the journey lay through countries 
already more than once explored by Botanists. Hipal was for a long 
time the head-quarters, first of Wallich himself, and then of his staff 
of collectors. It does not appear, however, that Dr. Hoffmeister 
collected to any considerable extent while there. The province of 
Kumaon was carefully examined by Blinkworth, and others of Wal- 
lich’s collectors. Garhwal is that part of the Himalaya nearest to 
the Saharanpore Botanic Garden, and had been for a long succession 
of years visited by Boyle and Falconer. Kunawer, on the north face 
of a snowy range which separates the Jumna and Ganges from the 
Sutlej, had not only been traversed by Boyle’s collectors, but had 
been most carefully explored by Jacquemont, whose observations and 
results were before the world. 
The lamented death of Dr. Hoffmeister prevented any revision of 
his memoranda on the vegetation of the country; and also the ar¬ 
rangement of the collections. With the exception of the Ceylon 
plants (few in number), the specimens have no special localities 
attached. The published list, however, shows that the collections 
were made chiefly, if not entirely, in the western Himalaya, in a 
journey of about three months, during which a very great extent of 
difficult country was traversed at a rapid rate, which must have made 
the preservation of the specimens both difficult and laborious. It is, 
therefore, creditable to Dr. Hoffmeister, that he should have brought 
away with him so many interesting plants, in sufficiently good condi¬ 
tion for accurate determination, as are contained in the list. The 
number of plants in the collection is estimated by Dr. Klotzsch at 
456, of which figures are given of 102 in 98 plates. # 
With every desire to avoid anything like censure on a botanist so 
distinguished and deservedly esteemed as the late Dr. Klotzsch, by 
whom the determinations of genera and species in this work were 
* The double plates to Rhododendron argentevm must be deducted from the 
total number, 100, as that plant, which is found only in the Eastern Himalaya, was 
not collected by Dr. Hoffmeister. 
