248 Britain's Heritage of Science 



Hooker's researches, especially on the flora of the Gala- 

 pagos, had convinced him that there was an evolution in 

 space. On the one hand he found that the plants of 

 neighbouring hills, though related, differed in detail; on 

 the other hand, identical species were often found on hills 

 separated by many thousand miles of ocean. Hooker was 

 the first to whom Darwin confided his theories of natural 

 selection, and he read for his friend the proofs of the first 

 sketch of the " Origin of Species." In fact, Darwin wrote 

 to him " for years I have looked on you as a man whose 

 opinion I valued on any scientific subject more than anyone 

 else in the world." 



In 1845 J. D. Hooker was appointed Botanist to the 

 Geological Survey, and for a time turned his attention to 

 fossil botany. But his love of travel was not yet sated, 

 and in 1847 he started to explore the Himalayas. He spent 

 part of two years in exploring Sikkim, and for a time was 

 imprisoned. He also explored part of Nepal, and visited 

 territory which has not even yet been re-investigated. He 

 penetrated some way into Tibet, and one afternoon at his 

 house in Sunningdale he received a telegram from the Lhassa 

 Expedition of 1903, stating that they had got as far as he had 

 previously penetrated, and congratulating him upon the 

 usefulness of his survey. Having explored Eastern Bengal 

 and the Khasia Hills, he returned to England in 1851, and 

 in 1855 he was appointed Assistant Director to his father at 

 Kew, and ten years later succeeded his father as Director. 



On his return form India, he immediately commenced, 

 in conjunction with Thomas, the first volume of the " Flora 

 Indica," which, however, also proved to be the last, as it 

 was planned on too ambitious a scale. In 1860 he visited 

 and examined considerable areas of Syria, and about this time 

 he was contemplating his celebrated " Genera Plantarum." 

 But the call of the world still held him, and in 1871 this 

 indefatigable traveller, accompanied by John Ball and Maw, 

 made an expedition into Morocco. They were the first 

 Europeans to ascend the Tagherot Pass, nearly twelve 

 thousand feet high. 



In 1873 Hooker became President of the Royal Society, 

 and he made a real effort to bring that Institution into closer 



