2 



[January, 1912, 



The advancing years seemed almost to 

 pass him by, save that they brought 

 him the sacred accompaniments of old 

 age — love, honour, and obedience, troops 

 of friends, till at the age of 91 death 

 surprised him whilst he was yet at work. 



Those of us who knew Hooker in his 

 hale, serene old age might well have 

 imagined that his life had been spent in 

 sheltered retirement from the vexations, 

 troubles and perils of the world, yet 

 to few men, in whatsoever walk of life 

 they be, falls such an eventful career as 

 he chose for himself. Well-nigh three- 

 quarters of a century ago — in 1839 — he 

 sailed, a youth of two-and-twenty, with 

 Ross in the "Erebus," and on that 

 famous voyage of the "Erebus" and 

 "Terror" he shared in the hardships 

 and dangers which await the explorer in 

 the bleak Antarctic seas. 



Alone he trod the passes and hills of 

 the Himalayas, and penetrated whither 

 no white man had gone before. In 

 later years he travelled to Syria, in 

 order to investigate the Cedar groves 

 of Lebanon, and surely none since 

 Solomon had more title to speak "of 

 trees, from the Cedar tree that is in 

 Lebanon, even unto the Hyssop that 

 springeth out of the wall." 



Unlike so many journeys the labours 

 of which cease with the home-coming, 

 Hooker's travels involved years of ar- 

 duous toil after the wonderful harvests 

 of plants which he collected had been 

 garnered in. The working out of his 

 own collections was in itself a herculean 

 task, and beside the plants which he had 

 gathered with his hands, Hooker receiv- 

 ed countless specimens from his corre- 

 spondents in the four quarters of the 

 globe. 



We have been told by one of his dis- 

 ciples that even in his herbarium Hooker 

 was wont to adopt methods of classifica- 

 tion which he had learned to follow in 

 the wilds. The plants tr be arranged 

 were strewn upon the floor, and related 

 plants were coaxed gradually by his 

 unerring eye and judgment into their 

 proper groups. 



Of the magnitude of Hooker's contri- 

 butions to systematic botany we speak 

 elsewhere ; it suffices here to say that in 

 this domain he was equal, if not the 

 superior, of his great contemporaries, 

 William Hooker, Bentham, and Lindley. 



Hooker's claims to immortal memory 

 in the annals of science rest by no means 

 solely on his contributions to systematic 

 botany. A great observer, the range of 

 his observations in the countries which 

 he visited included geological, geogra- 

 phical and meteorological phenomena. 



Of them that other great traveller Hum- 

 boldt pronounced that they are *' a per- 

 fect treasure of important observations 

 in which a prodigious extent of previous 

 knowledge is brought to bear on every 

 topic, and which is marked with great 

 sagacity and moderation in all the views 

 brought forward." 



Versatility is the relaxation of genius, 

 and though Hooker was first and last 

 a botanist, his broad sympathies with 

 all domains of natural knowledge gained 

 for him the sobriquet of the " Versatile 

 Hooker," and established him whilst yet 

 a young man in the first rank of men of 

 science. 



Yet, remarkable as were Hooker's 

 achievements as a traveller, collector, 

 and observer, they do not complete the 

 tale of his contributions to knowledge. 

 To many of us, at all events, Hooker's 

 most abiding title to lasting memory is 

 his epoch-making work on the geographi- 

 cal distribution of plants, and the applic- 

 ation of that work to the elucidation of 

 the problems of evolution and the origin 

 of species. 



Hooker was happy in the moment 

 when he embarked on the *• Erebus " and 

 his life's work. Shortly before he sailed 

 with Ross, Darwin had returned from 

 the memorable voyage of the " Beagle." 

 The experienced traveller recognised the 

 high promise of the novice, and none 

 better than Darwin could advise Hooker 

 for his journey of exploration. In those 

 days began the acquaintance which 

 ripened into close and life-long friend- 

 ship. 



There is no doubt that Darwin's atti- 

 tude of mind towards the "species ques- 

 tion" influenced Hooker, and there is 

 also no doubt that Hooker's cautious yet 

 broad judgment proved invaluable to 

 Darwin. Already in his earliest writings 

 Hooker had taken, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, the first step away fiom the 

 dogma of the constancy of species. Simi- 

 lar forms of plants in distant Antarctic 

 lands he attributes not to so many 

 separate acts of creation, but to the 

 isolation — from geographical or climatic 

 causes — of forms which once spreads con- 

 tinuously over the whole area. For 

 more than twenty years after his return 

 from his voyage, Darwin — deep and slow, 

 exhausting thought, and hiving know- 

 ledge with each studious year— pondered 

 the problem of the Origin of Species. At 

 every stage, as he acknowledges, Darwin 

 availed himself of the large stores of 

 knowledge and excellent judgment of 

 his friend Joseph Hooker. Hooker 

 and Lyell it was who prevailed on 

 Darwin to publish jointly with Alfred 



