XXII 



Obituary Notice of Fellow deceased. 



somewhat earlier in the same year. Hooker's original plan was large, but 

 proved impracticable. Darwin, writing in 1868, said " It is a splendid 

 scheme, and, if you only make a beginning on a Flora, which shall serve as 

 an index to all papers on curious points in the life-history of plants, you 

 will do an inestimable good service" (M.L., vol. 2, p. 373). He hoped at 

 some time " to undertake such a task, in the form of a companion," but 

 never accomplished it. In some degree, Lord Avebury's 'Notes on the 

 Life-History of British Flowering Plants ' (1905) fills the gap. 



No very long time elapsed before the India Office also expressed the wish 

 that the Indian Possessions of the Empire should be included in the scheme. 

 In 1872 Hooker, acting under " instructions " from the Duke of Argyll, 

 issued the first part of a ' Flora of British India.' Though on a more modest 

 scale than the abortive attempt made by himself and Thomson in 1855, it 

 was not completed, even with the assistance of many contributors, for a quarter 

 of a century. But this will be referred to later. In 1877 he saw through 

 the press Baker's 'Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles.' 



Something of personal history must be resumed. In 1860 Darwin wrote 

 to Hooker, " Huxley is eager about a ' Natural History Beview ' which he 

 and others are going to edit, and be has got so many first-rate assistants that 

 I really believe he will make it a first-class production " (L.L., vol. 2, p. 328). 

 It was an Irish venture transferred in a second series to England. Darwin 

 told Huxley that, " I (Huxley) ought not to waste myself in other than 

 original work" (H.L.L., vol. 1, p. 210). During its short but brilliant 

 career — it died in 1865 — Darwin was enthusiastic and even contributed 

 a review. There is no doubt it was a very effective weapon in smiting what 

 Huxley called the Amalekites (loc. cit., vol. 1, p. 215). He regarded Hooker 

 " as art and part of the ' Natural History Beview,' though not ostensibly 

 one of the gang " (loc. cit., vol. 1, p. 237), and professed to be in terror of 

 being " blown up " by him (loc. cit., vol. 1 , p. 246). 



In the autumn of 1860 Hooker was invited by Captain (afterwards 

 Admiral) Washington, the Hydrographer of the Navy, to accompany a 

 scientific expedition to Palestine, to which Daniel Hanbury was also 

 attached. This must have been thought to be not free from risk, even to so 

 experienced a traveller. For Darwin called it astonishing (M.L., vol. 1, p. 166), 

 implored him not to " get your throat cut," and thought he " must be a little 

 insane" (L.L., vol. 2, p. 337). There seems to have been no adventure. 

 One outcome was the well-known paper on " Cedars " in the ' Natural History 

 Beview.' They afforded a problem which Hooker had more than once 

 discussed : a species with subordinate races in widely dissevered areas : 

 Himalaya (Deodar), Syria (Lebanon), and Africa (Atlas). Nothing was 

 accurately known previously of the grove on Lebanon, which he found to 

 occupy an old moraine 4000 feet below the summit, which is no longer 

 covered with perpetual snow. He thought that in a colder period the cedar 

 would have descended to a lower level and been continuous through 

 Afghanistan and Persia with the Himalayan race. 



