34 HOURS WITH NATURE. 



much esteem by every educated Bengali. His is an 

 honored name even to this day. 



Dr. George King, C. L E., LL. D., F. R. S. 9 the 

 present Superintendent of the Garden, assumed charge 

 of his office in 1871. Great changes have been effected in 

 the Garden during these last twenty five years. The 

 grounds have been laid out for landscape effects ; winding 

 sheets of ornamental water have been formed, and pretty 

 undulations have been thrown up. New roads and foot- 

 paths have been laid, and bridges, herbaria and 

 conservatories built. In fact, the Garden has improved 

 in every department. As a botanist Dr. George King 

 has earned a well-deserved distinction by the publication 

 of a series of botanical works of great merit. 



A host of other distinguished botanists have worked 

 at Indian botany without being directly connected with 

 the Botanic Garden, Calcutta. Foremost among 

 them is Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, K. C. S. I., C. B., 

 F. R. S., the greatest living systematic botanist. Sir 

 Joseph Hooker was for many years Director of the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, and was President of the Royal 

 Society from 1874 to 1879. He travelled extensively 

 in the Himalayas, and underwent many privations for 

 the sake of collecting rare Himalayan plants, and of in- 

 creasing his knowledge of Indian botany : he was taken 

 prisoner by the Rajah of Sikhim. He is the author of two 

 splendidly illustrated folio volumes on the Rhododen- 

 drons and other plants of the Sikhim Himalayas ; and 

 also of the Himalayan Journal in two volumes. He is the 



