15 
necessity for the sketch of the vegetation of India issued in 1904. 
Moreover, the work on the Balsamineae, which occupied his life 
from 1904 till 1911, although it gradually became extended to the 
whole of eastern and south eastern Asia, had its origin in a mono- 
bel ee study of the Indian species of Jmpatiens. 
wever, so much of Hooker’s work has, as the result of his 
own indefatigable field-work, been of necessity thrown into a floristic 
mould, this floristic study has been so thorough that all his writings 
are mines of wealth alike to the systematist, to the morphologist 
and to the student of botanical philosophy. Nor has he been 
prevented by the heavy floristic duties which the circumstances of 
his career imposed upon him from entering with success these 
various fields of study. So far as his contributions to pure system 
are concerned it is only necessary to mention his share in the pro- 
- duction of the ‘Genera Plantarum’ between 1860 and 1883. His 
contributions to pure morphology include his classic papers on 
Balanophoreae in 1856, the ovary of Siphonodon in 1857, Nepenthes 
in 1859, and Welwitschia in 1863. The Nepenthes paper is also 
important on the physiological side, and its bearing in this direction 
was more fully developed by Hooker in an address on the habits of 
carnivorous plants in 1874, 
But it is to his contributions to the field of botanical philosophy 
that Hooker largely owes his place in the roll of fame. tis oristic 
work, though done by the hand of a master, is after all work that, 
if not done so well, might still have been done by others. But the 
philosophical papers which commence with his share in the Intro- 
ductory Essay to the ‘Flora Indica’ in 1855 and end with his sketch 
of the vegetation of India in 1904, are those in which stand 
revealed the teacher we have lost. The first Indian Essay was 
the Cedars, in 1863 by is sketch of the vegetation of Syria an 
Palestine, in 1866 by his discourse on Insular Floras, in 1867 by his 
remarks on the struggle for existence as plants, in 1868 by that 
portion of his address at Norwich which deals with the Darwinian 
pate mire in 1877 and 1878 on the features of the North 
American flora, in 1881 by his address on Geographical distri- 
aries and in 1882 by his paper on Tropical African Mountain 
Floras. It is singularly appropriate that this series of master- 
pieces should end in 1904 as they begin in 1855 with an essay 
on the vegetation of India, his work connected with which had 
occupied his almost unbroken attention for a quarter of a century. 
A feature of these philosophical contributions which arrests the 
attention of the reader and compels admiration, is the style in which 
they are written. To this gift of style is due the fact that the 
* Himalayan Journal’ in which it is equally displayed has, without 
reference to its scientific contents, heen‘described as one of the best 
books of travel ever written and has also been characterised as the 
best guide book ever published. As a man of letters Hooker may 
be regarded as deserving a position only second to that which he 
attained as a man of science. 
In an appreciation contributed to * Nature’ by his devoted friend 
Dr, Asa Gray, in 1877, an estimate is given of the quality of 
