545 
the fruits contain no quercitol. 
Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker.* — It is 
appropriate that Sir Joseph Hooker’s life should have been 
written by his godson—the son of his old friend, T. H. Huxley. 
The task must have been one of almost filial duty, and Mr. 
Leonard Huxley is to be congratulated on the manner in which 
he has performed it. It can have been no light matter to select 
and arrange the letters of a man whose span of life and width of 
activities were so abnormal. So full is this correspondence that 
to a great extent Sir Joseph tells his own story, especially as 
most of the letters are written in a free unrestrained vein, thus 
conveying a more faithful portrait of the man than if his more 
formal utterances only had been given us. In order that these 
two volumes should be fully appreciated, it is as well to have at 
hand Darwin’s ‘‘ Life and Letters,’’ and ‘‘ More Letters,’’as also 
Mr. Leonard Huxley’s life of his father. The lives of the three 
men were inextricably interwoven, and flowed along the same 
channels; they aimed at the same ideals and were lifelong friends. 
Like Darwin and Huxley, Hooker began life with a medical 
training. All three, too, undertook memorable voyages to the 
southern seas. ‘Though the medical training was afterwards most 
useful to him, Hooker never took to the profession, but merely 
ualified in order to be taken by Sir James Ross on his famous 
Antarctic voyage in the Hrebus. : 
This was his first opportunity, and well did he make use of 
it. He laid the foundation of the great botanical career which 
was to make him famous, and obtained materials for the first of 
his classic works, the Flora of the Antarctic, New Zealand, and 
Tasmania. A few years after his return from this voyage he 
went out to India and explored the Sikkim regions of the Hima- 
layas with a success which Rhododendron lovers know so well, 
and which implanted in him a desire to systematize the Flora 
of India, a work upon which he was occupied on and off for half 
a century; for the Flora Indica met with many checks and was 
ompleted till 1897. 
oe his return, that connection with Kew began which was 
destined to be the main scene of his life’s labours. His father 
had been appointed Director in 1841, and between them for over 
forty years they controlled the destinies of that famous establish- 
ment. By the public generally, indeed, Sir Joseph Hooker will 
be best remembered for his work at Kew. It has often been said 
* “ Tife and letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, O.M., G.C.S.I.” Based on 
‘elhecten adiente and arranged by Lady Hooker. By Leonard Huxley. 
9 
2 vols. John Murray. 1918. ‘ 
