SIR JOSEPH HOOKER LANKESTER. 601 



in his garden. His long and fraternal association with Darwin was 

 of vital importance to each of them. The genius and originality of 

 his friend fed, as it were, on Hooker's immense stores of botanical 

 knowledge; and Hooker, in turn, was stimulated by Darwin's in- 

 quiries into new lines of activity and acquired, in aiding his friend 

 in those inquiries, a convincing proof of the decisive value of his 

 own vast labors in building up the knowledge of plants. The Life 

 and Letters form a fascinating record of that romantic, well-nigh 

 legendary period in the history of biological science, when great 

 men ravished the globe of its secrets and revolutionized human 

 thought. It was the privilege of the present writer to be personally 

 associated — in many cases intimately so — with the heroes of this 

 story from Lyell onwards, to grow up in their midst and to be 

 thrilled by the daily triumphs of those mighty warriors. Many 

 long years ago he was greeted by Hooker as " a friend and the son 

 of a friend " and it is with those words ringing in his memory that 

 he closes the book of that great man's life. 



