Ixviii PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



parts of the world when they went abroad. And Ms success as a 

 teacher was in some degree commensurate with his efforts, — his 

 salary from Grovernment, which on his first appointment to the 

 Chair was only £50, having been increased to £150, and the 

 other emoluments of the Professorship, arising chiefly from stu- 

 dents' fees, having risen from less than £60 to about £700, the 

 number of students having increased from twenty-one to upwards 

 of one hundred. 



During his residence in Glasgow, also, his merits became so 

 conspicuous that he was twice offered the honour of knighthood, 

 which he accepted from "William the Fourth in 1836, the honour 

 being bestowed on him " in consideration of his scientific career 

 and the great services he had rendered to Botany." 



But a further, and, in the interests of botanical science, far 

 more important, acknowledgment of his merits was evinced in his 

 appointment, in 1841, to the Directorship of the Eoyal Gardens 

 at Kew. 



It is a curious fact that Sir William Hooker had from the com- 

 mencement of his botanical career felt a strong interest in Kew, 

 and had never abandoned the secret idea that the time would 

 come when he might hold the post of its Director. Eor many 

 years during his Glasgow residence, the late John Duke of Bed- 

 ford had honoured him with his friendship and correspondence, 

 subscribing munificently to the expense of collectors whom he sent 

 out, and by means of his dij)lomatic relations and friends enlar- 

 ging Sir William's sphere of action in various parts of the world. 



The placing of Kew on a national footing had been for some 

 time a common object both with the Duke and Sir William 

 Hooker ; and the former did not fail, before his death in 1839, to 

 ui^ge upon those in political power the fulfilment of his favourite 

 project. Upon his death, his son, the late Duke of Bedford, zea- 

 lously carried out his father's wishes ; but it was upon the pre- 

 sent Earl Russell, then Lord John, that the chief weight of the 

 transaction fell ; and it is to him, then Eirst Lord of the Treasury, 

 that the nation owes the possession of these magnificent gardens. 



In 1841 Mr. Alton (the Director of all the E-oyal Gardens, 

 whether fruit, kitchen, or botanical) resigned his post at Kew, 

 having held it for fifty years. He was succeeded by Sir William, 

 who received a salary of £300 per annum, with £200 to enable 

 him to rent such a house as should accommodate his herbarium 

 and library, by this time of immense extent, and essential, we 

 need not say, to the working of the establishment, whether in a 



