Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. 



xxv 



European Temperate flora " (p. 445). The remarkable and unexpected fact 

 was ascertained that the Alpine-Arctic flora had failed to cross the Western 

 Mediterranean. The Great Atlas furnished " no gentian, no primrose or 

 Androsace, no rhododendron, no anemone, no potentilla, and none but lowland 

 forms of saxifrage and ranunculus " (p. 230). As to the Macaronesian flora, 

 Hooker was finally " disposed to regard it as a very distinct subdivision of 

 the Mediterranean province," in which " types once common to West Europe 

 and North Africa " have been eliminated (p. 421). 



The expedition was not free from difficulty and even danger, but escaped 

 mishap. The Moroccan Government in assenting to an exploration of the 

 Great Atlas stipulated that the ridge should not be crossed into the Sous 

 Valley. The highest point reached was the Tagherot Pass (11,483 feet), which 

 had never been reached before by any European. Incidentally they found 

 that the practice of sacrificing animals as a propitiatory rite survived amongst 

 the Berbers, and they were themselves on one occasion the object of it, in 

 the hope of securing through their influence the release of men imprisoned 

 by the Moors for non-payment of taxes. It is interesting to note that 

 Hooker and Ball formed and expressed the conviction that " the one reason- 

 able prospect of improvement in the condition of Morocco is to be sought in 

 its passing under the control of a civilised state," and that it should be 

 France (p. 351). 



Kew had been re-organised under the Department of Woods and Forests 

 with almost lavish generosity. In 1850 it passed to the control of the Office 

 of Works, to which officially it was only a " Pleasure Ground," and which never 

 felt much sympathy for its scientific character and functions. It is not 

 wholly surprising, therefore, that in 1872 Hooker had what have been 

 euphemisticalby described as " protracted differences " with Ayrton, the First 

 Commissioner. Sir Algernon West, Gladstone's private secretary, claims to 

 have " made peace between them," and thought Ayrton the " more reasonable 

 man of the two " (' Eecollections,' vol. 1, p. 14). That may have been the 

 official view ; but the differences were not adjusted without debates in both 

 Houses of Parliament. The scientific world saw clearly that the real 

 question involved was the breaking up of Kew as a scientific establishment, 

 and gave Hooker its unflinching support. What was perhaps of more 

 importance was that both Kew and Hooker were popular; public opinion 

 declared itself on his side; Gladstone transferred Ayrton to another office, 

 and the electorate dismissed him at the General Election in 1874 from 

 political life. 



In 1873 the Eoyal Society removed from the restricted accommodation it 

 had received in Burlington House to the building it at present occupies in the 

 Quadrangle. Hooker was elected President, Huxley being a joint secretary. 

 It was to be expected that the association of two men of strong individuality 

 and intense devotion to the interests of science should leave their mark on 

 the work and history of the Society. Hooker's first aim was to bring it 

 more into touch with the social life of the community. Tentative and 



