64 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



THEODORE COOKE. 

 (1836-1910.) 



The late Dr. Theodore Cooke, author of a Flora of the Presi- 

 dency of Bombay, a work on which he was engaged for about ten 

 years, who died on November 5th, 1910, at his residence, Ports- 

 wood House, Kew, in his seventy-fifth year, was a notable in- 

 stance of one who took up a serious piece of descriptive work late 

 in life with striking success. The eldest son of the Rev. J. Cooke, 

 M.A., formerly rector of Ardfinan, Co. Tipperary, Theodore 

 Cooke was born at Tramore, Co. Waterford, in 1836. He was 

 educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1859, 

 and from which University he eventually received the degrees of 

 M.A. and M.Eng. In both the literary and the professional 

 faculty to which he belonged he was a distinguished student. In 

 the former he was Hebrew Prizeman, first Honours man and 

 Senior Moderator, and Gold Medallist in Experimental and 

 Natural Sciences ; in the latter, he was awarded special certifi- 

 cates in Mechanics and Experimental Physics, Chemistry, 

 Mineralogy, Mining and Geology. In the year following 

 graduation, young Cooke entered the service of the Bombay, 

 Baroda, and Central India Railway as a constructing engineer, 

 remaining in the service of the company for five years. During 

 this period he came prominently into notice owing to the success 

 with which he supervised the construction of the great iron 

 bridge at Bassein, 4132 ft. in length, which carries the main line 

 northwards from Bombay to Surat. In 1865, however, the 

 Government of Bombay, having to fill the important post of 

 Principal of the Civil Engineering College at Poona, appointed 

 Cooke to this position, the acceptance of which involved his 

 joining the Bombay Educational Department. The selection, 

 whether from the standpoint of professional eminence or from 

 that of general knowledge, was thoroughly justified by results. 

 With great administrative gifts and much skill and tact in dealing 

 with men and affairs, he proved an ideal head of a college, and 

 when the institution of which he held charge widened its field of 

 work and became converted into the well-known Poona College 

 of Science, Cooke remained its Principal and held charge of it 

 until his Indian service closed in 1893. But during the long 

 period of his Principalship Cooke's abilities were utilised in 

 various other directions. He was appointed a Fellow of the 

 University of Bombay, and was long one of its most trusted 

 advisers; he served for years as a Dean of Faculty, and for a 

 time was a member of the Syndicate. Three times he acted as 

 Director of Public Instruction to his Government, and on one 

 occasion he acted as their Director of Land Records and Agri- 

 culture. 



The adoption of engineering as a profession had never affected 

 his early interest in the Natural Sciences, and field work in 

 connection with these engaged his attention in liis leisure hours 



