THE INCREASING WORK OF KEW 47 



ip by visitors and visiting, 5 but London society, which made 

 worse inroads upon his time than the extra work involved by 

 tiis father's absence. 



I cannot see my way to a mean course between dining out 

 everywhere and nowhere, without 'a system of prevarication 

 that would be intolerable, and now that my Father never 

 goes out, I have double duty that way. 



' How opposite our troubles are about society,' rejoins 

 Darwin ; ' you too much, I absolutely none.' 



This state of affairs continued till Sir William Hooker's 

 death in 1865, and his son's succession to the post of Director 

 at Kew. For this he had long been marked out both as the 

 foremost botanist in his country and as Assistant Director 

 since 1855. Nor was there anyone even to stand second to 

 him. Along with his father he was bound up with the making 

 and development of Kew. That it had risen to be for botany 

 pure and applied what Greenwich is for astronomy, the science 

 that directs the art of navigation, was due* to the untiring 

 energy, the personal devotion, the material private contributions 

 of father and son in specimens and books. With the appoint- 

 ment of the new Director came the necessary adjustment of 

 public and private property in the Herbarium, which was, 

 so to say, the scientific palladium of Kew. This, it will be 

 remembered, began ^with Sir William's own collection which 

 he had brought from Glasgow, and to which he had been con- 

 stantly adding. In conjunction with the Library it was the 

 basis of all the scientific work which was reflected over the home 

 country and the colonies and attracted the botanists of 

 all other countries. At first it was maintained and housed 

 entirely at Sir William's expense, but in the first decade it 

 outgrew all the accommodation within his means. Govern- 

 ment consented to provide better accommodation — on terms : 

 granted a Curator in return for public rights of access. But 

 it was not taken over bodily nor entirely maintained. Addi- 

 tions still came from Sir William. The gift of Bentham's 

 fine library and herbarium (of the flowering plants) helped to 

 fix the national character of the whole collection, and it became 



