DISTINaUISHED NATUEl LISTS RECENTLY DECEASED. 575 



were passed, and where bis popularity as a lecturer, liis admirable 

 method of training his students, and his genial and attractive manners, 

 soon made his house a rendezvous for all scientific men who visited 

 Scotland — we migiit almost say England. Gradually his corres- 

 pondence and his herbarium alike increased; the latter receiving 

 large contributions from his numerous pupils, who, in foreign coun- 

 tries, remembered with gratitude the teacher who had placed science 

 before them in so attractive a form. 



In 1836 he received the honour of knighthood from "William the 

 Fourth, in acknowledgment of his distinguished botanical career, 

 and of the services he had rendered to science ; and in 1841 his con- 

 nexion with Scotland terminated, and a. new era of his life began 

 with his appointment to Kew. To be Director of Kew Gardens 

 had long been the ambition of Sir "William Hooker's mind ; and 

 throughout his long residence in Glasgow he never abandoned the 

 possibility of eventually being placed in that position. He was 

 encouraged in these views by a nobleman well known for his dis- 

 tinguished patronage of literature and science, and himself a keen 

 horticulturist, and no mean botanist. We allude to the late John, 

 Duke of Bedford, who through the influence of his son. Lord John 

 Eussell, a statesman then rapidly rising into power, exerted a silent 

 but most powerful influence with the Government and officers of the 

 Queen's Household, in eff'ecting the transference of the Gardens to 

 the public. Sir William's appointment was indeed drawn up by 

 Earl Eussell ; it gave him a salary of £800 a-year, with £200 to liire 

 a dwelling-house for himself, which should be large enough to con- 

 tain his library and herbarium, the latter requiring no fewer than 

 twelve ordinary sized rooms for their accommodation. This was 

 afterwards increased to £800 a-year, with an official house in the 

 Gardens, and accommodation for his herbarium in the residence of 

 the late King of Hanover, where it forms the principal part of the 

 great Herbarium of Kew. The noble Earl is fond of stating that 

 on taking Sir William's appointment for signature to a brother Lord 

 of the Treasury, the latter remarked, " Well, we have done a job at 

 last !" 



Tlie history of Sir W^il Ham's career as Director of the Eoyal Gar- 

 dens is so well and so widely known that it need not detain us long. 

 Erom a garden of eleven acres, without herbarium, library, or museum, 

 and characterized by the stinginess of its administration, under his 

 sole management it has risen to an establishment eompriiiing 270 



