574 TUE Js^ATUHAL IIISTORI IlETIEW 



LI. — Notices of Disti:n^guished Natuiialists kece^tlt 

 Deceased. 



During tlie last few weeks, we have to deplore the loss of three 

 men distinguished in various branches of science, whose deaths will 

 leave vacancies, that it will be by no means easy to supply. AVe 

 extract the following notices of their active and laborious lives from 

 the pages of some of our contemporaries. 



Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., D.C.L., F.E.S. &c., Director 

 of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, died at his residence, in Kew, 

 on the 12th of August last, having just completed his 80th year. 



Sir William Hooker w^as born in 1785. His father, who was in 

 business at Norwich, was a man who devoted all his leisure to 

 reading, especially travels and German literature, and to the culti- 

 vation of curious plants ; by which doubtless, was laid the foundation 

 of that love of natural history for which his son became distinguished. 

 Sir William's education was received at the High School of Norwich. 

 Having at an early age inherited an ample competency from his 

 godfatlier, William Jackson, Esq., he formed the design of devoting 

 his life to travelling and natural history. Ornithology and ento- 

 mology first attracted his attention ; but, being happily the discoverer 

 of a rare moss, which he took to Sir J. E. Smith, he received from 

 that eminent botanist the bias which determined his future career. 

 Henceforth, botany was his sole aim ; and with the view of collect- 

 ing plants, he made expeditions to Scotland and its islands, France, 

 Switzerland, and Iceland, and also extensive preparations for a 

 prolonged exploration of Ceylon, which plan was, however, frustrated 

 by the disturbances which broke out in that island. 



During this period, 1806—14, he formed the acquaintance of all 

 the principal scientific men in England and on the Continent, and 

 commenced that intercourse and correspondence which never ceased 

 till the day of his death. In 1815 he married the daughter of 

 Daw^son Turner, of Yarmouth, himself well known as a good botanist, 

 and settled at Hales worth, in Suff"olk. Here was laid the foundation 

 of his now magnificent herbarium, and here commenced a long series 

 of valuable botanical works, which followed each other at short inter- 

 vals up to the present time. An increasing family and a decreasing 

 income induced him, in 1820, to accept the Eegius Professorship of 

 Botany in Glasgow, at which place the next twenty years of his life 



