30 PKOCBEDINGS OF THE 



Hooker's Presidential Address to tlio Whitish Association at tho 

 Norwich fleeting of iy()8, ^Vhat appealed to one was, of course, 

 his zealous championship of Darwinism, then by no means 

 universally accepted, at least by the laity of Science. 1 will only, 

 however, allow myself one quotation from this part of the Address. 

 (Speaking of the then position of the Darwinian theory the President 

 said: — "it is ^>«r excellence an avowed favourite with the rising 

 schools of naturalists ; perhaps, indeed, too much so, for the young 

 are apt to accept such tlieorics as articles of faith, and the creed of 

 the student is but too likely to become the shibboleth of the future 

 ])rofessor " (p. 22). Darwinism has passed through and left 

 behind tho dangers of the age of faith predicted by Hooker ; it 

 has long emerged into the more wholesome air of free criticism, and 

 has to face, on certain sides, the vigorous rivalry of alternative 

 theories. 



At that time it appears that fossil plants were attracting much 

 attention, for Hooker says : " In my own special Science, the 

 greatest advances that have been made during the last ten years 

 have been in the departments of Fossil liotany, and Vegetable 

 Physiology.'"' 



" In the past history of the globe, two epochs stand prominently 

 forward — the Carboniferous and the Miocene — for the abundant 

 materials they att'ord, and the light they consequently throw on the 

 early conditions of the Vegetable Kingdom." (p. 13.) As regards 

 the Carboniferous flora, he refers especially to the results attained 

 by liinuey and Carruthers. " These show," he says, " that Calamites 

 is an actual member of the existing family of Equisetaceje, 

 which contained previously but one genus, that of the common 

 Mare's-tail of our river-banks and woods." In this frank accep- 

 tance of the conclusion of the English pala^obotanists Hooker 

 was in advance of his time, for many years had to elapse before 

 prejudices were overcome and difficulties surmounted so as to 

 enable the true position of the Calamariese to be universally 

 recognised. 



As regards the Miocene plants Hooker was much impressed by 

 Heer's results ; the evidence for a highly developed Arctic Tertiary 

 Flora was what chiefly interested him. 



In this Address Hooker, after some vigorous criticism of over- 

 reliance on evidence from leaves in palaeobotany, added: "In this 

 most unreliable of Sciences — Fossil Botany — we do but grope in 

 the dark ; of the thousands of objects Ave stumble against, we here 

 and there recognise a likeness to what we have elsewhere known 

 and rely on external similitude for a helping hand to its affinities ; of 

 the great majority of specimens we know nothing for certain, and of 

 no small proportion we are utterly ignorant. If, however, much 

 is uncertain, all is not so, and the Science has of late made sure 

 and steady progress, and developed really grand results " (p. 15). 

 These words express concisely his attitude towards the whole 

 subject — severest criticism combined with a keen interest in such 

 advances as seemed to him to rest on a sound basis. The same 



