CH. xxxvni. SfX WILLIAM HOOKER. 421 



manufacturing it out of the non-living matter in the air and 

 soil in which they grow. What this power is we do not know, 

 and though the life in our own bodies and in that of all 

 animals is supported by this same kind of living matter we 

 cannot manufacture it ; we, and all the animals can only 

 obtain it by feeding on plants, or on other animals which are 

 vegetable-feeders, and which therefore have had their food 

 prepared for them. 



Geographical and Economic Botany Sir W. 

 Hooker, 1785-1865. Thus, by means of microscopic 

 botany our knowledge of the life of plants has been increased 

 enormously in the present century ; but it would not be fair 

 to close this subject without speaking of the equally great 

 advances in the study of the distribution of plants over the 

 globe, and of their use to man. As far as England is con- 

 cerned we owe much on this account to Sir William Hooker 

 (1785-1865), who spent his life and a large part of his 

 private fortune in encouraging the collection of plants all 

 over the world, and in founding the Museums and Her- 

 barium of Kew Gardens. He also exerted his influence 

 largely in persuading the Government, both here and in the 

 Colonies, to publish the Floras of the different districts, so 

 that we now have a fairly accurate account of the plants of 

 all the English possessions, and of the special homes or 

 habits of different species, and this work has been carried 

 on most effectively by his son, the present Sir Joseph 

 Hooker. 



Any botanist who now wishes to study the history of 

 plants has means placed at his disposal, for which Gesner, 

 Grew, Malpighi, and Linnaeus longed in vain, and new 

 observations are being added daily which should tempt all 

 young minds to learn something of a science at once so 

 beautiful and so accessible to every one who cares to turn 



