EARLY YEARS 127 



Hookeria, styling him as " a most assiduous and intelligent 

 botanist, already well known by his interesting discovery of 

 Buxbaumia aphylla, as well as by his scientific drawings of Fuci 

 for Mr Turner's work : and likely to be far more distinguished 

 by his illustrations of the difficult genus Jungermannia, to which 

 he has given particular attention" (Trans. Linn. Soc. IX. 275). 

 Clearly young Hooker was a convinced naturalist in his early 

 years, and that by inner impulse rather than by the mere force 

 of circumstances. 



Not that the circumstances of his early years were in any 

 way against his scientific tastes. He inherited a competence 

 at the early age of four, and so was saved the mere struggle 

 of bread-winning. His father was personally interested in 

 gardening, while from his mother's side he inherited a taste for 

 drawing. Moreover, he was early thrown into relations with 

 some of the leading naturalists of his time, chiefly it appears by 

 his own initiative, and doubtless he owed much in those opening 

 years to the advice and stimulus of such men as Dawson Turner, 

 and Sir James Smith. Elected to the Linnean Society in 1806, 

 he became acquainted in the same year with Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Robert Brown, and other leading naturalists. Thus when other 

 young men would be feeling for their first footing, he at the age 

 of 21 had already penetrated into the innermost circle of the 

 Science of the country. For a period of sixty years he held 

 there a place unique in its activity. He shared with Augustin 

 Pyrame De Candolle and with Robert Brown the position of 

 greatest prominence among systematists, during the time which 

 Sachs has described as that of " the Development of the Natural 

 System under the Dogma of Constancy of Species." The 

 interval between the death of Linnaeus and the publication of the 

 Origin of Species can show no greater triumvirate of botanists 

 than these, working each in his own way, but simultaneously. 



The active life of Sir William Hooker divides itself naturally 

 into two main periods, during which he held two of the most 

 responsible official posts in the country, viz. the Regius Chair 

 of Botany in Glasgow and the Directorship of the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew. We may pass over with but brief notice the 

 years from 1806 to 1820, which preceded his attainment of 



