Hooker's Contributions to Geographical Botany 307 
said:—“TI shall to the day of my death keep up my full interest in 
Geographical Distribution, but I doubt whether I shall ever have 
strength to come in any fuller detail than in the Origin to this grand 
subject.” This must be always a matter for regret. But we may 
gather some indication of his later speculations from the letters, the 
careful publication of which by F. Darwin has rendered a service to 
science, the value of which it is difficult to exaggerate. They admit 
us to the workshop, where we see a great theory, as it were, in the 
making. The later ideas that they contain were not it is true public 
property at the time. But they were communicated to the leading 
biologists of the day and indirectly have had a large influence. 
If Darwin laid the foundation, the present fabric of Botanical 
Geography must be credited to Hooker. It was a happy partnership. 
The far-seeing, generalising power of the one was supplied with data 
and checked in conclusions by the vast detailed knowledge of the 
other. It may be permitted to quote Darwin’s generous acknowledge- 
ment when writing the Origin:—‘“I never did pick any one’s pocket, 
but whilst writing my present chapter I keep on feeling (even when 
differing most from you) just as if I were stealing from you, so much 
do I owe to your writings and conversation, so much more than mere 
acknowledgements show2” Fourteen years before he had written 
to Hooker: “TI know I shall live to see you the first authority in 
Europe on...Geographical Distribution®.” We owe it to Hooker that 
no one now undertakes the flora of a country without indicating 
the range of the species it contains. Bentham tells us: “after 
De Candolle, independently of the great works of Darwin...the first 
important addition to the science of geographical botany was that 
made by Hooker in his Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania, 
which, though contemporaneous only with the Origin of Species, was 
drawn up with a general knowledge of his friend’s observations and 
views*.” It cannot be doubted that this and the great memoir on 
the Distribution of Arctic Plants were only less epoch-making than 
the Origin itself, and must have supplied a powerful support to the 
general theory of organic evolution. 
Darwin always asserted his “entire ignorance of Botany®.” But 
this was only part of his constant half-humourous self-deprecia- 
tion. He had been a pupil of Henslow, and it is evident that he 
had a good working knowledge of systematic botany. He could find 
his way about in the literature and always cites the names of plants 
with scrupulous accuracy. It was because he felt the want of such 
a work for his own researches that he urged the preparation of the 
Index Kewensis, and undertook to defray the expense. It has been 
1 More Letters, u.p.7.  ? Life and Letters, 1. p. 148 (footnote). 3 Ibid. 1. p, 336, 
4 Pres, Addr. (1869), Proc. Linn. Soc. 1868—69, p. lxxiv. ° More Letters, 1. p. 400. 
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