230 END OF THE PEESIDENTIAL TERM 



Beside Hooker, moreover, now stood William Thiselton-Dyer, 

 a leading representative of the new school of physiologists, 

 whose ardour had received inspiration and direction from 

 Huxley. He was Professor of Botany to the Eoyal Horticul- 

 tural Society, and was then aiding the Director of Kew as 

 Private Secretary. Hooker already had him in mind for 

 Permanent Secretary, or better still Assistant Director, as 

 soon as the Government should sanction the appointment, 

 which took place in 1875. Under his care the Physiological 

 Laboratory could find its true development, while it would 

 also afford him immediate scope for his own branch of 

 work. 



Hooker was therefore well advised when he persuaded 

 Mr. Jodrell to make his benefaction to botanical science in 

 the form of this Physiological Laboratory. Private munificence 

 thus outstripping a laggard Government, the Jodrell labora- 

 tory was built, equipped and in working order by 1876, before 

 the new Herbarium was well under way. It is interesting 

 to note that the first research made in the laboratory was 

 by Professor Tyndall on the organisms of putrefaction. 



The immediate need and scope of such a laboratory are 

 illustrated by a letter of 1874 arising out of Darwin's corres- 

 pondence with G. J. Romanes, 1 who was experimenting to 

 raise seedlings from graft hybrids. If the seminal offspring 

 of plants hybridised by grafting should show their hybrid 

 character, it would be striking evidence in favour of pangenesis. 

 This experiment, however, did not succeed. (See M.L. i. 280 

 and i. 359.) 



To Charles Darwin 



Kew: December 22, 1874. 



By all means let Mr. Romanes come here and I will do 

 what I can. Our best grafters &c. get such good places 

 abroad that we cannot keep them, but he shall have the 



1 George John Romanes (1848-94), a student under Michael Foster and 

 Burdon Sanderson, proceeded from physiological work to wider scientific 

 problems, especially on the development of the intelligence in animals and in 

 man : while in Darwinian and post-Darwinian theory, he put forward a theory 

 of Physiological Selection. Elected F.R.S. 1879. 



