CHAPTER 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 o 

 outdoor occupation certainly made for health in his strenuois 

 life. ' I am very busy,' he adds (September 28, 1866), ' outjf 

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

 can make even Kew 50 per cent, better than it is.' In J:ne 

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

 cheerfully at 6 and before it, and sleeping like a ploughbc/ in 

 consequence, or rather in spite of it.' And by February 868, 

 * I am getting very proud of the Gardens, in which I reallyiave 

 worked tremendously hard for now two years/ 



But this portion of outdoor life never quenched theleep- 

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

 Admiralty in 1866 to look out for two ' high class ' natiralists 

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

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

 who had sailed on the latter expedition, he repeats : 



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

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

 whatever hardships, discomforts and dangers. If I have 

 an ardent w f ish (which alas is not even tempered b; a hope) 

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

 — the worst of it is, it is confoundedly bad for Electing, 

 preserving and stowing away specimens. 



Happily fate still reserved two more expeditiomfor him. 



80 



