CHAPTEE XXXI 



KEW, ST. PETERSBURG, AND MAROCCO 



HOOKER returned to Kew in the autumn of 1865 ' really 

 extremely well, though still a little stiff in the joints.' * I 

 am taking to gardening,' he tells Darwin, and the share of 

 outdoor occupation certainly made for health in his strenuous 

 life. * I am very busy,' he adds (September 28, 1866), * out of 

 doors six hours a day and delighting in my occupation. I 

 can make even Kew 50 per cent, better than it is.' In June 

 1867, * I am turning into a landscape gardener, getting up 

 cheerfully at 6 and before it, and sleeping like a ploughboy in 

 consequence, or rather in spite of it.' And by February 1868, 

 ' I am getting very proud of the Gardens, in which I really have 

 worked tremendously hard for now two years.' 



But this 'portion of outdoor life never quenched the deep- 

 seated desire for travel in the wilds. Being bidden by the 

 Admiralty in 1866 to look out for two * high class ' naturalists 

 for voyages to Corea and the Straits of Magellan, he exclaims : 

 ' I wish I could go I ' And to one of these, Dr. Cunningham, 

 who had sailed on the latter expedition, he repeats : 



I know no life so enjoyable as camping out, and I never 

 met a man worth his salt that did not keenly relish it, under 

 whatever hardships, discomforts and dangers. If I have 

 an ardent wish (which alas is not even tempered by a hope) 

 it is to camp out again for a month or two in a savage country 

 the worst of it is, it is confoundedly bad for collecting, 

 preserving and stowing away specimens. 



Happily fate still reserved two more expeditions for him. 



80 



