LIN]!fEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 79 



Adjourned General Meeting, 

 June 7t.h, 1917, at 8.0 p.m. 



The President, on taking the Chair, gave a suc(nnct account, as 

 follows, of the origin of the Hooker Lectui-e, which arose from a 

 bequest of the late Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Gr.C.iS.I., C.B., 

 F.R.S., augmented by a subscription of the Fellows, and a further 

 contribution by Lady Hooker. 



The late Sir Joseph Daltou Hooker, born on yOth June, 1817, 

 died on 10th December, 1911, in his ninety-fifth year, was a 

 Member of the Linnean Society for nearly seventy years. This 

 is not the time to dwell upon the career and achievements of one 

 of the most renowiied of our Fellows and one of the most remark- 

 able men who have directed their energies to the cultivation of 

 the science of natural history. What concerns us now is that 

 during his long Fellowship he was one of the wisest counsellors 

 and truest well-wisliers of this Society and that his kind thought 

 of us was present to the last. By his will. Sir Joseph Hooker 

 left £100, free of duty, as a legacy to the Linnean Society. 



In January, 1913, the Council took into consideration the 

 application of this bequest. Satisfied that the Fellows would not 

 desire this legacy to be applied to the ordinary purposes of the 

 Society, but would rather wish it to be used for some memorial of 

 the illustrious donor in connection with the Society, tlie Council 

 recommended, as mosr, suitable, an adequately endowed Lecture on 

 subjects especially associated with the name of Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 to be delivered from time to time by distinguished men and to 

 be published by the Society. The Council suggested that this 

 generous bequest of £100 be treated as the nucleus of a Fund of 

 not less than £600 to be I'aised for the purpose of carrying this 

 proposal into effect. These recommendations were accepted by 

 the Society. 



The appropriateness of the proposal had already been made 

 evident on 2-ith May, 1912, when a very eminent occupant of 

 this cliair chose as the subject of a singularly able Anniversary 

 address, " The Relationship of Sir Joseph Hooker to tlie Study 

 of Fossil Plants." Its suitability was again shown on 20tli 

 November, 1913, when a distinguished Fellow of this Society, who 

 has followed the footsteps of our master in that region, delivered 

 a lecture on "The Travels of Sir Joseph Hooker in the Sikkim 

 Himalaya." Introducing the lecturer on that day, my immediate 

 predecessor was able to inform the Society that £300 had already 

 been invested as a fund for the purpose of founding the Hooker 

 Memorial Lecture. The market value of that investment, it should 

 be noted, was £180. To-day the value of the fund amounts to 

 £385, and the Council entertain the hope that, with your aid, 

 the balance of £215 required to fulfil the object defined in 

 January, 1913, may be provided at no distant date. 



