December 21, 191 1] 



NATURE 



251 



duties in connection with the Geojogical Survey did 

 not, however, suffice to occupy all his time prior to 

 his departure for India. He drew up an "Enumera- 

 tion of the Plants of the Galapagos Archipelago," 

 issued in 1847, and collaborated with the late Mr. 

 Bentham in preparing- the " Flora Nigritiana," incor- 

 porated by Sir W. J. Hooker in the "Niger Flora," 

 published in 1849. 



Some of the results of Hooker's Indian observations, 

 notably those relating to his journeys in the Indian 

 plains, were published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 in 1848. But if on his return to England in 185 1 he 

 reverted with energy to the elaboration of his Ant- 

 arctic results, the Indian material was not neglected. 

 He began, in collaboration with Thomson, that " Flora 

 Indica " the issue of which in 1855 has already been 

 alluded to. In connection with this work two sump- 

 tuous illustrated folios were issued; the first, on "The 

 Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya," was edited 

 from Hooker's notes, sketches, and material, by his 

 father, between 1849 and 185 1; the second, "Illus- 

 trations of Himalayan Plants," chiefly made for an 

 Indian friend, Mr. Cathcart, in the Darjeeling neigh- 

 bourhood, was edited, with descriptions by Hooker 

 himself, in 1855. 



This was, however, by no means all that he was 

 able to accomplish. In addition to the families 

 formally described in the solitary volume of their 

 " Flora Indica," Hooker and Thomson discussed in 

 the Linnean Society's Journal various problems of 

 interest relating to individual Indian plants, and issued 

 a series of papers, " Praecursores ad Floram Indicam," 

 dealing more completely with a number of important 

 natural families. Finally, Hooker's " Himalayan 

 Journals," one of the most fascinating books of travel in 

 our language, in which his Indian journeys are dealt 

 with generally, was issued in two octavo volumes in 

 1854. Probably no botanical field work has proved 

 more fertile in interest or provided material of greater 

 value in the discussion of biological and phytogeograph- 

 ical problems than that done by Hooker. Yet great 

 as were his botanical results and pardonable as it is 

 in the botanical worker to look upon these as Hooker's 

 highest achievement, it is doubtful whether the topo- 

 graphical results were not of even greater moment. 

 These results, reduced by Hooker himself, with the 

 assistance, as he tells us, of various Anglo-Indian 

 friends who came under the magic spell of his per- 

 sonality, were arranged at Darjeeling during the early 

 months of 1851. They formed the basis of a map, 

 published by the Indian Trigonometrical Survey, with 

 the aid of which, such is its accuracy and its detail, 

 the operations of various campaigns and political 

 missions have been carried to a successful issue. 



The ten years during which Hooker was assistant 

 director at Kew were marked by extraordinary activity. 

 The time that could be spared from executive duties 

 was far from being entirely absorbed in Antarctic and 

 Indian work. In 1862, and again in 1864, he dealt 

 with important collections of plants from Fernando 

 Po and the Cameroons in papers valuable in them- 

 selves and in the evidence they afford that his interest 

 in the flora of the Dark Continent, first evinced in 

 T847, had never abated. This interest showed itself 

 once more in a paper of 1875, which may be mentioned 

 out of sequence, on the subalpine vegetation of Kili- 

 manjaro. In this case, however, the interest was asso- 

 ciated with another which had guided much of his 

 Antarctic study and had manifested itself in 1856 and 

 in t86i in dealing with the Arctic plants collected 

 during the Franklin searches and the McCHntock 

 nxpedition. The problems involved were dealt with 

 in a comprehensive fashion in 1861 in Hooker's classic, 

 'Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants." A 

 group of kindred problems had presented themselves to 

 NO. 2199, VOL. 88] 



Hooker when engaged in the study of the vegetation' 

 of the more outlying Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, 

 and subsequently when dealing with the plants of 

 Galapagos. To this period therefore we may most 

 properly ascribe the formation of the views enunciated 

 in a notable discourse on " Insular Floras," delivered 

 at the meeting of the British Association at Norwich 

 in 1866. Yet another allied group of problems called 

 for consideration in connection with his Antarctic, 

 Indian, and African studies ; his conclusions with 

 regard to these are stated in his " Introductory Essay 

 to the Flora of Tasmania," published in i860 ; the 

 opinions there expressed on the origination and dis- 

 tribution of species suffice to explain the action which 

 Hooker took when, in conjunction with Lyell, he had 

 induced Darwin, in 1858, to publish a preliminary 

 sketch of his famous hypothesis. 



To the same period of his activities belongs the share 

 taken by Hooker between 1858 and 1864 in the pre- 

 paration of Thwaites's enumeration of the plants of 

 Ceylon. To this period we owe, moreover, the codi- 

 fication of the results given in the second portion of 

 the Antarctic flora in the form of a " Handbook of the 

 New Zealand Flora," contributed to the series of 

 Colonial floras published under Government authority. 

 The work was issued in part in 1863 ; the concluding 

 portion was published in 1867, shortly after the period 

 had come to an end. But to this period we owe, in 

 addition, various important special studies on the 

 structure and affinities of Balanophoreae, published in 

 1856; on the origin and development of the pitchers 

 of Nepenthes, in 1859 ; and on WeVwitschia, in 1863. 

 The most obvious result of Hooker's visit to Syria in 

 i860 is a paper on the cedars of Lebanon, Taurus, 

 Algeria, and India, published in 1862. In this article 

 a subject of great interest and considerable difficulty 

 is handled with masterly skill. But the journey bore 

 further fruit in the form of a singularly pleasing- 

 sketch of the botany of Syria and Palestine, contri- 

 buted in 1863 to "Smith's Bible Dictionary." Exten- 

 sive and important as these various contributions to 

 botanical knowledge are, they do not include all that 

 Hooker accomplished while assistant director; the 

 most onerous and important undertaking initiated 

 during this period has still to be mentioned. In re- 

 newed collaboration with Mr. Bentham was com- 

 menced one of the outstanding botanical monuments 

 of the nineteenth century, in the form of a great 

 " Genera Plantarum " ; of the three volumes which this 

 work includes the first was completed in 1865. 



Hooker's succession in that year to the directorship 

 of Kew brought with it all the responsibilities con- 

 nected with the administration of that national insti- 

 tution. These, however, did not prevent him from 

 continuing to take his share in the preparation of the 

 "Genera Plantarum," the second volume of which 

 was completed in 1876, the third and concluding one 

 in 1883. The directorship, however, brought with it 

 the duties of continuing the Botanical Magazine and 

 the Icones Plantarum, edited by his predecessor. 

 These duties Hooker continued to fulfil even after his 

 retirement in 1885; in the case of the Icones until 

 1889, in that of the Magazine until 1902, and with the 

 collaboration of Mr. W. B. Hemsley^ for two years 

 longer, his connection with this historic serial ending 

 in 1904, with the completion of the one hundred and 

 thirtieth volume. The death of his father imposed on 

 Hooker yet another filial dutv of the most arduous 

 character, that of replacing in 1870, by his own 

 "Student's Flora," the "British Flora" of his pre- 

 decessor. In 1873 he annotated and rearranged the 

 natural families "of plants in an English version of 

 the "Traits g^n^ral" of Le Maout and Decaisne, and 

 in 1876 he wrote for the series of science primers that 

 on " Botanv." 



