xxiv Obituary Notice of Fellow deceased. 



to Darwin, to whom it gave no comfort (L.L., vol. 3, p. 81). No doubt 

 Pangenesis was in advance of its time, but, if we may measure the merit 

 of a hypothesis by the depth of insight into the phenomena which it 

 attempts to explain, Pangenesis is a greater intellectual feat than even 

 Natural Selection itself. 



The promulgation of Darwin's theory left Hooker's outlook on his own 

 work substantially unaltered. But with Lyell the case was different. 

 Though he did not realise it, we must agree with Huxley that, " consistent 

 uniformitarianism postulates evolution as much in the organic as in the 

 inorganic world" (H.L.L., vol. 1, p. 169). Darwin fully admitted his own 

 personal debt, for in the dedication of the ' Journal ' he says : " The chief part 

 of whatever scientific merit this journal and the other works of the author 

 may possess has been derived from studying the well-known and admirable 

 ' Principles of Geology.' " Huxley emphasises this : " Darwin's greatest work 

 is the outcome of the unflinching application to Biology of the leading idea 

 and the method applied in the ' Principles ' " (' Eoy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 44, p. viii). 

 There can be few positions more tragic in life than that of the master who is 

 confuted by his disciples from his own teaching. Yet this was Lyell's fate, 

 and his conversion was slow and painful. In a passage which Darwin thought 

 " felicitous and eloquent " (L.L., vol. 3, p. 101) Hooker did him justice. 

 " I know no brighter example of heroism, of its kind, than this, of an author 

 thus abandoning, late in life, a theory which he had for forty years regarded 

 as one of the foundation stones of a work that had given him the highest 

 possible position attainable amongst contemporary writers. Well may he be 

 proud of a superstructure raised on the foundation of an insecure doctrine, 

 when he finds that he can underpin it and substitute a new foundation ; and, 

 after all is finished, survey his edifice, not only more secure, but more 

 harmonious in its proportions than it was before." 



In 1869, at the instance of the Government, he attended the International 

 Botanical Congress at St. Petersburg. 



In 1871, Hooker, accompanied by his friends John Ball, the botanist, and 

 George Maw, geologist, made (April to J une) an important and successful 

 expedition to Morocco, a country which, as he said then, " though close to 

 Europe, is amongst the least known regions of the earth." He had been 

 inspired with the idea of visiting it by Captain (afterwards Admiral) 

 Washington, whom he accompanied to Syria in 1860, and who was " one of 

 the very few Europeans who had reached the flanks of the Great Atlas 

 Chain " (1829). The scientific problem which presented itself to Hooker 

 was to " explore the great Atlas, to become acquainted with its vegetation, 

 and to ascertain whether this supplies connecting links between that of the 

 Mediterranean regions and the peculiar flora of the Canary Islands." 

 Beyond the first two chapters, Hooker's other occupations prevented his 

 writing the ' Journal of a Tour,' and it was completed by Ball (1878), but 

 he supplied appendices in which he stated his botanical conclusions. The 

 mountain flora of Morocco proved to be "a southern extension of the 



