12 
1886 onwards, practically the whole of his economic contributions 
are to be found in the series of ‘ Kew Reports’ published by his 
father between 1855 and 1865 while Hooker was Assistant 
Director, and in the same series from 1865 onwards while he was 
Director at Kew. 
Nor has more than passing allusion been made to the fact that 
in fields of study other than botanical his interest was as keen and 
his contributions to knowledge were as valuable as those in the 
science which he primarily served. Regarding his services to 
geography, it is hardly necessary to say more than has already 
been said, save to point out that these services were as great 
and equally effectively rendered on the technical side by his work 
extended ; another early contribution, published in 1848, deals 
with the temperature of the soil in Egypt, while the Himalayan 
Journals are again replete with valuable meteorological information 
which had already been presented in a compact and illuminating 
manner in a paper on the climate and vegetation of East Nepal and 
Sikkim published in 1852. 
We find, however, that at almost as early a period Hooker 
developed a strong inclination for palaeobotanical study. This 
