LIXNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOK. 57 



hereabouts, growing with snjyinns, but always quite different. The 

 roots feel knotted ; it swarms from the Torce up to the top of 

 Cronkley and never varies. If you can't make it into a new 

 species I must send it to Eabington ! Bentham is puzzled with it." 



The following account of a visit to Backhouse's nursery at York 

 was written at the same time, and is of interest for its defence of 

 the system of cultivation under glass that is usually followed in 

 botanic gardens. 



" We were delighted with Backhouse's nursery. The collection 

 of Alpines is wonderful and entirely successful, and we ought to 

 have something of the kind at Kew *. 



"The underground fernery rather disappointed me, though very 

 wonderful in its way. Many of the tilings do better than in pots, 

 many worse. But I am beginning to think that my dislike to 

 Ward's case cultivation and these devices of Backhouse and 

 Bewley, &c., arises from the fact that though nearer imitations 

 of nature than our house-aud-pot system, they are failures by 

 direct comparison with nature. No one compares the house-and- 

 pot system with nature and no comparison is suggested : with 

 these systems it is the contrary — lam taken to a muggy, close, 

 damp, slimy hole, the contrast of which to the fresh air ot 

 heaven in the plants' native habitat is too violent, and the fact 

 of the plant growing as well in the one case as the other, rather 

 shocks than gratifies." 



The occasional addresses and lectures delivered by Hooker at 

 meetings of the British Association, of which he was President 

 at Norwicli in 18G9, reach a very high standard indeed. Those 

 dealing with Geographical Botany were especially remarkable. 



Hooker's eminence marked him out for the Presidential chair of 

 the Eoyal Society (1873-77), and it is a tribute to his marvellous 

 vigour that he was able successfully to grapple with the onerous 

 duties of this post during his period of full work at Kew. As a 

 rule the presidentship is held by a veteran already in the enjoy- 

 ment of some leisure from the active pursuits of his life. 



Unlike his father. Hooker had little direct experience as a 

 teacher of botany in academic institutions, though he held an 

 assistantship in the botanical department of the University of 

 Edinburgh for a brief period on his return from the Antarctic, 

 None the less the educational side of botany always interested 

 him deeply, and was often the subject of comment in his letters to 

 my father. The following, written in 1862, merits repetition at 

 the present day : — 



" I do not approve of working a professoriate like a school or 

 a college coacJi ; it is a mistake depend upon it. Good free 



* Eealised in 1882. 



