Ivi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [JuilC I912, 



of the book. Geologists are especially indebted to the ' Himalayan 

 Journals ' for numerous observations on the glaciers of the great 

 mountain-chain, and for valuable details concerning the stupendous 

 effects of subaerial denudation at great elevations. 



In 1855, Hooker joined his father in the important work that 

 Avas being carried on in the great botanical establishment at 

 Xew — work which occupied him during the next thirty years 

 of his busy life. During the earlier portion of that period he 

 published a number of papers on fossil plants in our own and 

 other journals, his observations on the enigmatical Pacliytheca and 

 the more satisfactory Trigonocarpon being of especial value and 

 interest. But, not less helpful to our science than his various 

 memoirs on the subject, were the wise cautions and warnings which 

 he from time to time issued against the growing habit among 

 geologists of trusting to impressions of leaves as a means of 

 identification, and the no less dangerous one of making hasty 

 generalisations concerning habitat and climate from the supposed 

 analogies of fossil and living plants. Hooker's wide know- 

 ledge of the existing floras and their distribution, which was 

 so well known, gave the greatest weight to these cautions and 

 criticisms. 



From 1852 to 1856 Hooker served on the Council of this Society 

 and again from 1860 to 1862, but, unlike his two friends, he 

 never became one of its Officers, a fact for which the pressure of 

 his other duties will sufficiently account. 



In 1873 he visited Auvergne with Prof. Huxley, and made 

 observations on glacial phenomena, which were published in 

 ' Xature ' in 1874. Ileferring to this visit about a year before his 

 death, Hooker wrote 



' I am very glad to see prominence given to Scropes labours and early 

 views. I travelled over the scenes of his labours with Huxley and a copy of ' 



liis book.' 



In 1868 Hooker characterized Fossil Botany as ' the most 

 unreliable of sciences ' : yet he nevertheless retained his early 

 interest in it. It is trne that the numerous and valuable observa- 

 tions of AVilliam Crawford Williamson — given to the world, as they 

 were, in a form that did not appeal to Hooker's critical and 

 cautious mind — for some time failed to obtain full recognition 

 from him. But when, in recent years, the study of Carboniferous, 

 Jurassic, and Cretaceous plants yielded such neAV and startling- 

 results to investigators in this country, France, Germany, and the 



