Notes

Abstract

THE following despatch from the Government of India t Lord George Hamilton is published in the latest number of the Kew Bulletin:—“We are informed by our Director of the Botanical Survey of India that the ‘Flora of British India,’ which was begun by Sir Joseph Hooker some twenty-five years ago, has just been brought by him to completion. The value of the work as a contribution to pure science has already been appreciated and acknowledged by others who are more competent to speak in such a matter than ourselves. But we desire to express our hearty recognition of the service to India which Sir Joseph Hooker has rendered by his monumental undertaking. He has for the first time brought the botany of the Empire into a collective form and placed it upon a firm and lasting basis, thus completing the work which he began nearly half a century ago in the Himalayas. We would ask your lordship to convey to Sir Joseph Hooker our high appreciation of his labours, and of their value and importance as systematising and adding to our knowledge of the vegetable productions of India, and our hearty congratulations upon having brought to a satisfactory conclusion a work to which he has devoted so many years of his life.” In transmitting a copy of this letter to Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Arthur Godley writes:—“Lord George Hamilton desires heartily to associate himself with the Government of India in their acknowledgment of the valuable services you have done to India by this great work, and by your labour in the field of Indian botany, since you first visited that country nearly fifty years ago.”