LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 3 1 



of the Himalayas, were the period in whicli he saw nature in her 

 most diversified, grandest, and purest aspects, and was brought 

 face to face with the mysteries of the distribution of life over the 

 globe. Then, and for many years afterwards, he made these 

 phenomena and their causes the object of his special study. His 

 writings on the subject have had the most powerful influence on, 

 and were the guide, in all subsequent inquiries. His travels were 

 of the highest importance, and that not with regard to our biolo- 

 gical knowledge alone : his intimate acquaintance with geology, 

 meteorology, his proficiency as a surveyor, have rendered his 

 accounts of the couutries visited, by him equally valuable to the 

 geographer. 



" W hen biology entered upon that eA^entf ul period of its history, 

 in which the doctrine of continuous evolution by natural selection 

 was strivino^ to replace that of distinct creations, Hooker was one 

 of the foremost champions of the former. Many systematic 

 workers in zoology and botany were apprehensive at the time of 

 dangers arising to their methods from the new doctrine. Hooker 

 dispelled such fears by his own example ; he continued his syste- 

 matic work, but he sliowed at the same time that it was not 

 the end, but only the means to the end, of biological researcli. 



" The part which he took, during the lifetime of his father, and 

 during the twenty years of his directorship, in raising the Eoyal 

 Gardens at Kew to their importance and eminence, is known to 

 all of you. But I cannot pass this short allusion to his official 

 work without referring to the position which Kew has taken as 

 the centre of advice and help for the kindred institutions in India 

 and the Colonies. This bond had been already established by the 

 father; I'ut it was strengthened by the son's personal acquaintance 

 with their capabilities, and his sympathy with their needs. 



" His official duties, sufficiently aiduuus by tiiemselves, did not 

 prevent him from obeying other demands of science, when he was 

 called upon to perform the Junctions of President of the British 

 Association in 1868, and of the Eoyal Society from 1873-]8/8. 

 And since his retirement from the public service in 1885, at an 

 age when most men seek for rest from their labours, we have 

 seen him still prosecuting his work with that single-minded 

 devotion to science which has been characteristic of the whole of 

 his life. 



" The prosperity of the Linnean Society, of which he has been 

 a Fellow since 1842, has always been to him an object of special 

 interest. Some of his most remarkable memoirs appeared in our 

 ' Transactions.' Bentham, who devoted years of care to the 

 welfare of the Society, was connected with him by ties of closest 

 frif ndship. And last, but not least, we remember that in honouring 

 the sou we are doing homage to the memories of the father and 

 grandfather, both of whom were illustrious Pellows of the 

 Society." 



