Description

Alabaster was pleased to hear that he might be of assistance to Sir Joseph Hooker with regard to the Benjamin tree [Ficus benjamina]. He immediately obtained the King's command to the Minister of the North, with little hope of a good result. However, James McCarthy, Surveyor General, was sent to a survey part of Benjamin district, where he should remain for many months. McCarthy has promised to try to send a description, dried specimens and live plants while he is there. Alabaster stressed that McCarthy do this for the 'honour of England', and before Dr Maas, a German in French Government service. If Alabaster receives plants from McCarthy, he will forward them in a Wardian case to Cantley of the Singapore Botanic Gardens for opening and ventilation before the long journey to England. Alabaster's lack of botanical knowledge has resulted in a reluctance to despatch Wardian cases himself. A previous attempt was aborted once he found that one of the 'choicest novelties' in a case he had made up was to be found featured in 'CURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE'. He asks if RBG Kew has a specimen of 'Siamese pipe-sticky bamboo'[?]; if not, Thiselton-Dyer should contact Alabaster's brother-in-law, G. Swayne Fahey[?] in London to view his specimens. Alabaster can then send some from Siam [Thailand] if desired, along with his, apparently new, Cypripedium and anything else of interest. If any botanists of favourable repute are travelling to China, Alabaster suggests they might like to visit Bangkok and inspect his collection of orchids, which he has built up over many months of travel. He remarks upon the sad loss of [Henry James] Murton, who was rather young when he died. Some seeds sent to Alabaster by Hooker did not germinate. Alabaster confirms that Nymphaea coerulea grows abundantly in Siam. A completely white Saccolabium giganteum found amongst the ordinary spotted kind, and which Alabaster suspects might be an 'seedling albino' considered to be unique in Siam, has recently finished flowering. Page 1 of 4.