iv Obituary Notice of Fellow deceased. 



that had been obtained from the same area by previous explorers. The 

 result is a classical statement of a problem in geographical distribution which 

 is still far from being completely solved. Writing in 1845, he thought it 

 impossible that the plants of the Antarctic islands could "have migrated 

 from other countries," but also thought " that islands so situated furnish the 

 best materials for a rigid comparison of the effects of geographical position 

 and the various meteorological phenomena on vegetation, and for acquiring a 

 knowledge of the great laws according to which plants are distributed over 

 the face of the globe." This is a somewhat difficult statement. But it 

 appears to imply that distribution followed laws still to be discovered, and 

 the further problem how plants would be modified by isolation due to 

 geographical and physical conditions. In the first he strikes the key-note 

 which was to dominate the whole work of his life ; much happened before he 

 saw a satisfactory solution of the second in 1866. 



Although the pursuit of a definite aim runs through the bulk of all 

 Hooker's work, it is important to recognise the fact that, like Darwin, he 

 was essentially a naturalist. He was gifted in an extraordinary degree, 

 especially in his early life, with keen powers of observation, a lively interest 

 in what he observed and an aptitude for reflecting upon it. These qualities 

 illuminate his writings, and when he turned aside, as he did from time to 

 time, to some collateral subject, he afforded abundant evidence that, had he 

 pursued it, he would have achieved something more than distinction. The 

 ' Flora Antarctica ' affords a striking instance. As Prof. Seward points 

 out (' Fossil Botany,' vol. 1, p. 151), he anticipated the Challenger in 

 discovering " the existence of masses of diatomaceous ooze over a wide 

 area in Antarctic regions " (' Fl. Ant.,' pp. 503-6). Huxley, 40 years after- 

 wards, wrote : " I have always looked upon Hooker's insight into the 

 importance of these things and their skeletons as a remarkable piece of 

 inquiry — anticipative of subsequent deep-sea work " (H.L.L., vol. 2, p. 1 82). 



In 1839 Hooker had been introduced to Darwin in a casual meeting in 

 Trafalgar Square. But Darwin had read with interest the letters sent home 

 to Hooker's family and communicated to him by the elder Lyell (L.L., vol. 2, 

 p. 20). Soon after the return of the expedition, Darwin wrote with warm 

 congratulations, and this began a life-long friendship. What is historically of 

 more moment is that on June 14, 1844, Darwin wrote to Hooker: " I think 

 I have found out the simple way by which species become exquisitely 

 adapted to various ends." " I believe," Hooker tells us, " that I was the first 

 to whom he communicated his then new ideas on the subject." Darwin had 

 long periods of ill-health between this and 1847, but Hooker frequently 

 visited him ; " for days and weeks the only visitor, bringing my work 

 with me." 



The relations between the two men can have few parallels in scientific 

 history ; and we owe a deep debt to Dr. Francis Darwin for the admirable 

 volumes in which they are revealed. It is not easy to. say whether the 

 human or the scientific interest is the greater. For Darwin could write in 



