WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER. 323 



eighty-four plates, all from his own ready pencil, — a work 

 which took rank as a model both for description and illustra- 

 tion. In 1828 he brought out, in conjunction with Dr. Taylor, 

 the well-known " Muscologia Britannica," the second edition 

 of which, issued in 1827, is only recently superseded. The 

 " Musci Exotici," with 176 admirable plates, appeared, the 

 first volume in 1818, the second in 1820. These were his 

 principal works upon Mosses and the like, — an excellent sub- 

 ject for the training of a botanist, and one in which Hooker, 

 with quick eye, skilled hand, and intuitive judgment, was not 

 only to excel but to lay the foundation of high excellence in 

 general descriptive botany. 



When arranging for a prolonged visit to Ceylon, it appears 

 that he sold his landed property, and that his investment of 

 the proceeds was unfortunate ; so that the demands of an in- 

 creasing family and of his enlarging collections, for which he 

 always lavishly provided, made it needful for him to seek 

 some remunerative scientific employment. Botanical instruc- 

 tion in Great Britain was then, more than now, nearly re- 

 stricted to medical classes ; the botanical chairs in the uni- 

 versities therefore belonged to the medical faculty, and were 

 filled by members of the profession. But, through the influ- 

 ence of Sir Joseph Banks, as is understood, the Regius Pro- 

 fessorship of Botany in the University of Glasgow was offered 

 to Hooker, and was accepted by him. He removed to Glas- 

 gow in the year 1820, and assumed the duties of this posi- 

 tion. Here, for twenty years — the most productive years of 

 his life — he was not only the most active and conspicuous 

 working botanist of his country and time, but one of the best 

 and most zealous of teachers. The fixed salary was then only 

 fifty pounds ; and the class fees at first scarcely exceeded that 

 sum. But his lecture-room was soon thronged with ardent 

 and attached pupils, and the emoluments rose to a consider- 

 able sum, enabling him to build up his unrivaled herbarium, 

 to patronize explorers and collectors in almost every acces- 

 sible region, and to carry on his numerous expensive publica- 

 tions, very few of which could be at all remunerative. 



The first publication of these busy years was the " Flora 



