180 LIFE AND FRIENDSHIP AT KEW 



duplicate ; one specimen going to swell the Kew collection in 

 return for naming plants which the senders could not identify. 

 Correspondence, much of it in Hooker's own hand, was main- 

 tained with the directors of botanical gardens elsewhere, and 

 with collectors and unofficial correspondents. The raising 

 of useful plants from seeds and cuttings and sending them to 

 new countries was a vast undertaking in itself. Reports on 

 the ordinary work and on the special subjects referred to Kew 

 had to be written, the Botanical Magazine and the Icones 

 Plantarum to be published, work to be done on the Colonial 

 Floras that were being issued in connexion with Kew. It was 

 only after official work was over that he could turn to his own 

 original work, and official work did not necessarily end with 

 official hours. 



Yet all this never cut short his scientific work ; the Botanist 

 was never swallowed up in the Official, though he kept in the 

 closest touch with the details of administration. In all this 

 he looked well after his subordinates. He never lost a chance 

 of picking up a promising young man to whom he could give 

 work in the Gardens till he was fully trained and thus exempted 

 from Civil Service examination before being added to the 

 staff. Often he found excellent places for them in Colonial 

 botanic gardens where they could best serve science and keep 

 in close touch with Kew. His personal interest here is illus- 

 trated by a cheery letter to the elder Oliver in 1865, telling 

 how he had bidden one of the other Garden officials restrict 

 his correspondence with a gardening paper to time outside the 

 official hours of 8.30 to 5. At the same time he warned him 

 about excessive smoking and his habit of rushing back to 

 work immediately after meals — ' which you should be told of 

 too ! He suffers from dyspepsia (no wonder).' Prof. F. W. 

 Oliver remembers his father obediently resting three-quarters 

 of an hour after lunch. He was always fearful of assuming 

 the position of scientific mentor over his subordinates, especially 

 at first. Still, in case of need, he would lose no opportunity 

 of keeping their work on the right lines, till they found their 

 way for themselves. 



Bad workmanship and waste of time were his abhorrence, 



