Scarcely less are we indebted to the sportsman and hunter-- to Markham, Dunlop, and Wilson the "mountaineer." But in addition to these names, that have become famous through the published reports of their explorations, there are others that still remain unrecorded.

The _plant-hunter_--the humble but useful commissioner of the enterprising nurseryman--has found his way into the Himalayas; has penetrated their most remote gorges; has climbed their steepest declivities; and wandered along the limit of their eternal snow.

In search of new forms of leaf and flower, he has forded the turbid stream, braved the roaring torrent, dared the dangerous avalanche, and crossed the dread crevasse of the glistening glacier; and though no printed book may record his adventurous experience, not the less has he contributed to our knowledge of this great mountain world.
His lessons may be read on the parterre, in the flowers of the purple magnolia, the deodar, the rhododendron.

They may be found in the greenhouse, in the eccentric blossoms of the orchis, and curious form of the screw-pine--in the garden, in many a valuable root and fruit, destined ere long to become favourites of the dessert-table.

It is ours to chronicle the story of an humble expedition of this kind--the adventures of a young plant-hunter, the _employe_ of an enterprising "seedsman" well-known in the world's metropolis..