THEODORE COOKE 65 



from the outset of his Indian career. As time went on, however, 

 his spare time was given more and more to botanical as compared 

 with zoological or geological pm'suits, and during the later years 

 of his service botanical studies became almost exclusively the 

 pastime of his leisure. These studies were marked by the 

 thoroughness that characterised his official work, and he had 

 already taken the position of a recognised authority on all that 

 related to the identity and distribution of the plants of the 

 Bombay Presidency and Scinde, when in 1891 the Bombay 

 Government were asked to select an officer to take charge of the 

 operations in Western India connected with the newly organised 

 Botanical Survey of India. This post, which he held in conjunction 

 with the Principalship of the College of Science, Cooke at once 

 showed himself thoroughly competent to fill and when, shortly 

 afterwards, he submitted a proposal for the preparation of a local 

 Flora of the Western Presidency, his suggestion received the 

 hearty support of the Director of the Survey, the late Sir George 

 King. The proposal, however, failed to meet the approval of the 

 Secretary of State for India, and when Cooke retired in 1893, as 

 there appeared no prospect of his being permitted to prepare his 

 Flora, he accepted an appointment at the Imperial Institute. 

 After holding this post for three years, he definitely retired to the 

 country. Sometime thereafter, however, the opposition to the 

 scheme submitted six years before was withdrawn, and Cooke, 

 returning to London, settled at Kew and began the preparation 

 of the work, the first part of which was published in 1901, the 

 eighth and concluding part in 1908, one part appearing each year 

 with the regularity and precision that marked everything which 

 he did. The work itself is of the highest quality, no state- 

 ment made elsewhere has been taken on trust, and conflicting 

 views are always carefully weighed and examined. It remains 

 a remarkable and lasting testimony alike to his acumen and his 

 energy. 



With the close of the preparation of the Bombay Flora, Cooke 

 did not abandon botanical work. He at once took up as a 

 volunteer the study of certain families of South African plants, of 

 which he prepared accounts that have been published in the 

 Flora Capensis. While so employed he was some months ago 

 incapacitated by the illness which has now ended fatally. 



Cooke's kindly disposition and his shrewd sense endeared him 

 to an extensive circle of Indian friends, and added to the number 

 those with whom his botanical studies brought him into contact in 

 this country. His University recognised his labours in the cause 

 of higher education by conferring upon him the degree of LL.D. ; 

 his public services were recognised by Government, by his appoint- 

 ment to the Order of the Indian Empire in 1891. To the last 

 he was interested in engineering questions, and was a member of 

 the Irish Institute of Civil Engineers. He had, however, a range 

 of interests and sympathies which extended beyond his early pro- 

 fessional or his prolonged educational services, and outside the 

 limits of his favourite recreation, botanical study. He joined the 



