HODGSONIA HETEROCLITA
This magnificent plant is one of the most curious and beautiful of the whole natural family to which it belongs, and was therefore selected by Dr. Thomson and myself to bear the name of E. H. Hodgson, Esq., E.L.S., of Dorjiling, in the Sikkim-Himalaya, a gentleman whose scientific services in the Himalaya of Nipal and Sikkim justly merit this honour, and in whose hospitable residence my examination of this splendid plant was conducted.

Hodgsonia is very common in many parts of Eastern Bengal, but has not hitherto been cultivated in England ; it once flourished in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, but has long since been lost there. Its geographical distribution is very extensive, as it appears to range from almost the level of the sea in the island of Penang, lat. 6 N., to 5000 feet in the Sikkim-Himalaya, lat. 27° N. ; at the latter elevation, however, inhabiting the deepest and most sheltered valleys of the outer range. It is probably also a native of Java, for it agrees tolerably with the descriptions of several species of Trichosanthes described by Dr. Blume. The stems are slender lianas, frequently one hundred feet long; they climb the forest trees, and their branching ends, matted together, and covered with leaves, sometimes form dense hanging screens of bright green foliage. The large flowers appear in May, and are very deciduous, the males falling wholly away and the females breaking off just above the ovary ; these flowers may often be seen strewing the ground in abundance in the forest, when the plant itself cannot be recognized amidst the canopy of vegetation above the traveller's head. The great melon-like fruit, called " Kathior-pot" by the Lepchas, ripens in autumn and winter.

From the book:
Illustrations of Himalayan plants chiefly selected from drawings made for the late J.F. Cathcart, Esq. of the Bengal Civil Service. The descriptions and analyses by J.D. Hooker ; the plates executed by W.H. Fitch.
Published by L.Reeve, London - 1855