Twice I went to Sikkim but missed seeing the rhododendrons in bloom and had to be content with19th century botanist Joseph Hooker's book

List is long; life is short! This is my motto as a traveller. I would be happier with it in Latin. But that would sound pedantic and pretentious. Worse still, my wife, for whom I modified the original Greek-Latin aphorism, would not understand it. Like many an ambitious young man, I too in my youth drew up a list of countries and cities I would one day visit. Later, as I read books and travellers’ tales about these places, I began refining the list, noting which place I would want to visit in which season: Japan during April-May to see the cherry blossoms, New England during the fall to see the many coloured autumn leaves, Shiraz in the spring to listen to the Persian bulbul, and the high peaks of Sikkim during April end to walk in the woods where some of the world’s most beautiful rhododendrons come to flower this time of the year.

Many years have passed since that list was first drawn. I have visited some of the places listed there but am nowhere close to the end of it. And, now I cannot for various reasons travel as much as I once used to. So many springs and autumns have passed, but I have not been able to go and see many of the sights that I wanted to see. Neither the cherry trees in blossom, nor the New England woods in autumn or, nearer home, the flowering rhododendrons in Sikkim. The trees come to flower April beginning and in another week or so, the entire forest goes ablaze with deep red and crimson and pink and whiteish bunches of soft, sweet smelling flowers. Near Delhi, they can be seen in full bloom about and around Chakrata, Mussoorie, Nainital and Simla. The smell is not strong, except where the forest is dense and the trees are numerous.

When I cannot go to see a sight, I do the next best thing. I go get what I know to be the best book that gives me a view and a feel of the real thing. Sometime the book is so pretty and the illustrations so charming that I seem not to miss the real sight. One such book I acquired a long time ago is Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker’s (1817- 1911) Rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalayas (RSH) written during the years 1849-51. Hooker has several works on Indian botany to his credit but this is his most attractive work, mainly because of its excellent hand coloured lithographic illustrations drawn by his contemporary Scottish artist Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892). RSH is an extremely rare book from the 19th century. No copy of the large, folio size book has come up for sale at any book auction or with any antiquarian bookseller throughout the world during the last decade or so. Occasionally, loose prints from the book do get offered for sale by booksellers in some quaint little places but that is about all.

Hooker, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, was one of the most eminent botanists of all time. He was director of the Kew Gardens in London and was highly decorated for his contribution to geographical botany. He travelled widely through different continents to collect botanical specimens, drew numerous pictures of plants on the spot for his artist friend, Fitch, to draw and finish in Glasgow afterwards. His other works on Indian plants are Illustrations of Himalayan Plants, Flora Indica, A Century of Himalayan Orchids and the Himalayan Journals, or notes of a naturalist, in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, Khasia Mountains.

Hooker traversed the eastern Himalayas for three years, was once arrested by the Sikkim government on charge of secretly preparing maps of the country and was released only when the East India Company in Calcutta threatened war. He recorded, named, drew and described several new species of rhododendrons. Many of these were later planted at Kew Gardens, and which today adorn many a house garden in Europe. The superabundance of rhododendrons is the glory of the Singalila Range in Sikkim, he wrote. The banks of rivers between 8,000 and 14,000 feet are generally covered with rhododendrons sometimes to the total exclusion of other wooded vegetation, especially near the snowy mountains; a cool temperature and great humidity being the most favourable conditions for the luxurious growth of this genus. Such conditions prevail throughout the Singalila range due to its proximity with the Khangchendzonga range. The Nepal frontier road terminates at the staging bungalow of Chewabhanjan, and from thence the only path available for marching is the sheep path running onwards to the grazing grounds which lie towards Jongri. For many miles, the path runs through woods of Rhododendron arboreum, Rhododendron cinnabarinum, Rhododendron falconeri, Rhododendron barbatum, Rhododendron campanulatum, and Rhododendron hodgson.

When I first read Hooker’s description of his travels in the Sikkim Himalayas, I made a promise to myself that I would certainly walk the mountains in April May but I have not been able to do so. Twice I went to Sikkim but both times during October-November and so I missed seeing the Sikkim rhododendrons in full bloom. I have tried to compensate myself with Hooker’s description of the mountains and their forests, trees and ground growth and Fitch’s outstanding illustrations, which are so deftly drawn and coloured and made to glisten with soft coatings of gum arabica that one can almost mistake them for real.