Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. 



xxxv 



Glasgow. In 1869, after his Presidency of the British Association, he was 

 created C'.B. ; in 1877, at the close of that of the Boyal Society, K.C.S.I. ; in 



1897, on the completion of the ' Flora of British India/ he was advanced 

 to G.C.S.I. in the Diamond Jubilee list of honours, his old friend Sir Bichard 

 Strachey receiving the same distinction. In 1907, on his ninetieth birthday, 

 the Order of Merit was handed to him personally at his home on behalf of the 

 King. As an old naval officer he felt himself debarred from accepting foreign 

 decorations. The apparent exception was the Order of the Polar Star; 

 Hooker explained his position to the Swedish Ambassador and, while unable 

 to accept the honour, was allowed to retain the decoration (H.L.L., vol. 1, 

 p. 361). He accepted the Prussian "Pour le Merite," but only after the 

 King's express approval ; but that, as Huxley said, " is a purely literary and 

 scientific affair." 



From the Boyal Society Hooker received a Boyal Medal in 1854, the 

 Copley in 1887, and the Darwin in 1892, the second occasion of its award. 

 The Society of Arts gave him their Albert Medal in 1883 ; the Geographical 

 their Founder's in 1884, and the Manchester Philosophical the Wilde Medal in 



1898. From the Linnean Society he received the Linnean Medal in 1888, 

 one specially struck " on the occasion of the completion of the ' Flora of 

 British India'" in 1898, and in 1908 that struck on the jubilee of Darwin's 

 memorable communication. In 1907 he was the sole recipient from the 

 Boyal Swedish Academy of the Medal to commemorate the bicentenary of the 

 birth of Binnseus, and this, short of the Order of Merit, which came afterwards, 

 he regarded as " the crowning honour of his long life." 



He was one of the eight Associes Etrangers of the French Academie des 

 Sciences and a member of other scientific societies throughout the world too 

 numerous to mention. 



A life which has been contemporary with three generations requires as 

 many portraits to show the personality which was familiar to each in 

 succession. The earliest of those reproduced shows Hooker in his 38th year, 

 and is reduced from a chalk drawing by George Bichmond, in the possession 

 of C. B. Hooker, Esq., of Dollarward House, Cirencester. It is reminiscent of 

 the " most engaging young man " whom Darwin had described to Lyell 

 eleven years earlier (M.B., vol. 2, p. 120). In middle life it has been 

 difficult to find anything satisfactory ; he was too busy to think about 

 portraiture. Perhaps the most characteristic is Mrs. Cameron's photograph, 

 which has been reduced. Of this Darwin wrote (M.L., vol. 2, p. 376) : 

 " I have got your photograph over my chimney-piece and like it much ; but 

 you look down so sharp on me that I shall never be bold enough to wriggle 

 myself out of any contradiction." Though only 13 years later than the 

 Bichmond portrait, it is eloquent of the stress of official labour. The last 

 portrait is from a photograph taken in the last year of his life in his garden 

 at Sunningdale. T T -D. 



