January 20, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 



4° 



o 



t 





THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH HOOKER. 



(Concluded from page 27.) 



Curtis's " Botanical Magazine." 



The Hookers, father and son, edited this perio- 

 dical, founded in 1787, from 1826 to 1904, vols, 

 liv. to cxxx., and Sir Joseph, volumes xci. to 



' ■*.•- 



x. 



containing plates 5,486 to 7,991. 



No other botanical or horticultural periodical 

 in the world can show an unbroken existence of 

 125 years, for it is still appearing regularly on the 

 first of each month. The Botanical Magazine 

 must be left with the remark that it contains the 

 elements of a history, not onlv of ornamental 

 gardening, but also largely of the introduction of 

 useful plants. A succinct " History of the Botani- 

 cal Magazine and Contemporary Horticultural 

 Literature," by the present writer appeared in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1887. 



Hooker's " Icones Plantarum." 



Hooker's Icones Plantarum, vol. i.-xxx., 1837- 

 1911, 3,000 plates, issued in several series, of 

 which Sir Joseph edited the third. This inter- 

 mittent serial was started by Sir William to 

 illustrate novelties selected from his herbarium, 

 and it has been continued by the Trustees of the 

 Bentham Fund as a Kew publication. Sir 

 Joseph was not a copious contributor, but he is 

 the author of tha letterpress to the plates in the 

 eleventh volume, illustrating plants peculiar to 

 the Island of St. Helena. 



portulacifolia, 



They are : Frankenia 



Xesiota 



Phylica ramossissima, 

 Mesembryanthemum cryptanthum, 

 Pharnaceum acidum, Lichtensteinia Burchellii, 

 Sium 



elliptica, 



helenianum, 

 midendron 



dendro; 



spurium, 

 integrifolium, 



Hedyotis 

 C. 



arborea, Com- 



Melano- 



rugosum, 

 Petrobium arboreum, 

 Senecio prenanthiflorus, S. Leucadendron and 

 Mellisia begonifolia (see also the paragraph 

 below on the Balsaminaceae). The first ten 

 volumes of the Icones are extremely rare, and, 

 deducting the amount for which the rest of the 

 volumes may be had, a set recently offered by 

 Quaritch would cost at least £50. 



The " Genera Plantarum " of Bentham and 



Hooker filius. 



Although as a whole this great work was a 

 joint affair, the final writing out of each family 

 or Order was done by one or the other of the 

 authors, and, in consequence of official duties, 

 Hooker did less of this than Bentham. Botanists 

 are indebted to Mr. Bentham for a condensed 

 summary of their individual labours ; and in 

 opening the explanation he says: " We wish, 

 however, that the whole may be considered as 

 the joint production of both of us." From this 

 summary we learn that Hooker worked out the 

 Cruciferje, the Capparideae, and the Rese 

 dacese; the whole of the Disciflorse, with the 

 exception of the Linese, Humiriacese, Gerania- 

 eeae, and Olacinese. Of the Calyciflorae, he 

 took the Connaraceae, Rosacea, Saxifragacese, 

 Crassulacese, Droseracese, Hamamelideae, 



Brumaceae, Haloragese, Rhizophoraceae, 



Combretaceae, Melastomacese, Lythrarieee, Ona- 

 grarieae, Samydaceae, Loaseae, Turneracea?, 

 Passifloraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Begoniaceae, Datis- 

 ceae, Cacteae, Ficoideae and Cornaceae ; as 

 against Leguminese, Myrtaceae, Umbelli'ferese 

 and Araliaceae by Bentham. Of the gamopeta- 

 lous families, Hooker did relatively less, his 

 share being restricted to the Rubiacese, Capri- 

 fohaceae, Vacciniaceae, Ericaceae, Epaerideee, 

 Myrsineae, Primulaceae and Sapotaeea?. In the 

 Monochlamydece, Hooker was more active, and 

 elaborated the Curvembrye* from the Nyctagi- 

 neae to the Batideae. 



thaceae, 





He also did the Nepen- 

 Cvtinacese and Balanophoreae, in 

 which families he was a specialist. Again, in 

 the Monocotyledons, Hooker wrote out com- 

 paratively little. The Palms falling to his 

 share, as well as the Nudiflora (Aracese, &c), 

 and the Apocarpae-Alismaceae, Naiadaceas, &c. 



" Index Kewensis." 



The first part of the great Index Kewensis 

 appeared m 1893, and the main work, with ad- 

 denda, was issued in 1895. It was compiled at 



the expense of Charles R. Darwin and his succes- 

 sors by B. Daydon Jackson, under the super- 

 vision of Sir Joseph Hooker, who read the whole 

 in proof. A first supplement, by T. Durand and 

 B. D. Jackson, covering the period 1886 to 1895, 

 was completed in 1906. Subsequent quinquennial 

 supplements have been compiled by the staff of 

 the Kew Herbarium, and the fourth, covering 

 the period 1906 to 1910, is now undergoing final 

 preparation for the press. The second supple- 

 ment was published in 1904, and the third in 

 1908. 



"A Sketch of the Life and Labours of Sir 

 William Jackson Hooker/' Annals of Botany, 

 vol. xvi. (1902), pp. ix. to cexxi., with a portrait. 

 This work of filial devotion has been freelv drawn 

 upon in the foregoing, and it must be left with 

 the remark that it is a treasury of facts in the 

 History of Kew. 



The Balsamin ace.*;. 



The delight and comfort of Sir Joseph's later 

 years was the study of the genus Impatiens, one 

 of the most difficult to deal with in the dried 



state, on account of the extreme tenuity of the 



flowers. By the exercise of great skill and 

 p bnce he succeeded in dissecting thousands of 



FlG. 24.--LILIUM LONGIFLORUM. 



flowers, the parts of which were carefully drawn 

 and subsequently mounted in finished style. Of 

 such an accomplishment a young man might be 

 proud. In the course of his labours on this genus 

 the author has described upwards of 150 new 

 species. Many have been figured in Hooker's 

 Icones Plantarum ; the drawings of the plants by 

 Miss M. Smith, often built up from fragmentary 

 specimens ; the analyses by Sir Joseph himself. 

 The bibliography of the subject begins with 

 Hooker and Thomson's joint work. 



11 Praecursores ad Floram Indicam," J. D. H. 

 and T. Thomson. Balsaminaceae. Journal of the 

 Proceeding* of the Linnean Society, vol. iv. pp. 

 106-157. 



" An Epitome of the British Indian Species of 

 Impatiens. " Records of the Botanical Survey of 

 India, vol. iv., part 1, 1904 ; part 2, 1905 ; part 3, 

 1906, pp. 1-53. About 60 species are dealt with. 



" New Species of Impatiens from China and 

 Cochin-China, Collected by Frenchmen and Pre- 

 served in the Herbaria of Park and Le Mans." 

 Hooker's Icones Plantarum, vol. xxix. (1908), 

 tt. 2851-2875. 



" Les Especes du genre Impatiens dans THer- 

 bier du Museum de Paris," Nouvelles Archives 



du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, 4me 

 serie, tome x. (1908), pp. 232-273, planches 2-6. 

 " Introductory Note." Latin key to 65 species, 

 whereof 48 new. 



"On Some Species of Impatiens from Indo- 

 China and the Malayan Peninsula." Kew Bulle- 

 tin, 1909, pp. 1-12. A classification of the species 

 of Eastern Asia and descriptions of new species. 



"A Review of the known Philippine Islands 

 Species of Impatiens." Kew Bulletin, August, 

 1909, pp. 281-289. Twenty-five species are 

 enumerated, of which 23 are new. There is a 

 Latin key to the species, but no full descriptions. 



Impatiens aVlndo-Chine in Lecomte Notulce 

 Sj/stematicce, vol. i. (1909), pp. 10-14. Descrip- 

 tions of nine new species. 



" New Asiatic Species of Impatiens from vari- 

 ous sources," Hooker's Icones Plantarum, vol. 

 xxx. (1910), tt. 2901-2925. 



" New Impatiens from China." Kew Bulletin, 

 October, 1910, pp. 269-275. Descriptions of 

 eight new species, collected by E. H. "Wilson, 

 and raising the number of Chinese species known 

 to the author to upwards of 170. 



" Generis Impatiens Species Indicae Nova 1 et 

 minus rite cognitse, a cl. Meebold detects." 

 Kew Bulletin, October, 1910, pp. 291-300. 

 Eleven new species and revision of several 

 others. 



" On the Balsaminaceae of the State of 

 Chitral." Kew Bulletin, June, 1911, pp. 209-211. 

 Enumeration of eight species. 



"On Some Species of Impatiens from the 

 Malay Peninsula." II., Kew Bulletin, July, 

 1911, pp. 249-250. Descriptions of two new 

 species, and a figure of I. peltata, Hook. f. 



The third part qf the 30th volume of Hooker's 

 Icones Plantarum, December, 1911, contains 

 Hooker's last work — a further contribution of 

 25 plates, illustrative of his favourite 



plates, 

 Impatiens. 



genus 



Conclusion. 



The foregoing superficial sketch of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker's life-work is necessarily incomplete as 

 a bibliography, and it is especially so in relation 

 to translations into foreign languages ; but it will 

 serve as a guide to the more important of his 

 contributions to botanical science during 

 three-quarters of a century. It is the tribute 

 of a grateful pupil of over 50 years' standing to 

 a great master, whose early help and encourage- 

 ment led to the realisation of the writer's am- 

 bition in the botanical world and to a life made 

 happy bjr pleasurable pursuits. A philosophical 

 appreciation of the career just terminated is left 

 to a more gifted pen. When Joseph Hooker first 

 saw light the study of botany was comparatively 

 in its infancy ; but he lived to see it raised to 

 the dignity of a science of methodical precision 

 in all its branches. Circumstances determined 

 the direction of his studies, and the greater part 

 of his life was devoted to taxonomy, phytogeo- 

 graphy and applied botany. No other botanist 

 has travelled so widely and had opportunities of 

 studying the vegetation itself of so many different 

 countries; and no botanist has described, for the 

 first time, so many of the extraordinary or- 

 ganisms of the vegetable kingdom. Sir Joseph 

 was twice married ; first, in 1851, to Frances 

 Harriet Henslow, daughter of the celebrated Pro- 

 fessor, and a sympathetic wife, who, among other 

 things, translated Le Maout and Decaisne's well- 

 known Traite General de Botaniqut. His second 

 wife, whom he married in 1877, was Hyacinthe 

 Lady Jardine, the accomplished widow of Sir 

 William Jardine, and she survives him. W. 

 Batting Hemsley. 



LILIUM LONGIFLORUM. 



The plant of Lilium longiflorum shown in fig. 

 24 was cultivated in a pot 8 inches in diameter 

 in the gardens of Mrs. Waddilove, Brunton Wall, 

 North Tyne, who kindly sends us the photo- 

 graph. The gardener, Mr. John Wilson, states 

 that "the pot contained two bulbs, which were 

 potted in the autumn of 1910 in a mixture of 

 three parts loam and one part leaf -mould, with a 

 little sand. The pot w T as stood in a cold frame 

 through the winter, but after danger from frost 

 was past the plant was placed outside till the 

 blooms appeared, when it was removed to a 

 greenhouse. There were 13 very large blooms 

 and six other flowers of ordinary size." 



