CHAPTER VI 
SIR WILLIAM HOOKER, 1841 TO 1850 
Before entering on a detailed account of events at Kew subsequent 
to 1841, a few words should be devoted to the remarkable man upon 
whom the guidance of its fortunes now devolved. William Jackson 
Hooker came of an old Devonshire family, but was born at Norwich, 
on July 6th, 1785. At the time, therefore, when he undertook the 
directorship of Kew, he was nearly fifty-six years of age ; and it 
bears no small testimony to his vigour and energy that he should 
have accepted such an office at a time of life when most men do 
not desire to increase their responsibilities. 
He was educated in the Grammar School at Norwich, and from 
his early years was attached to the study of natural history, more 
especially of birds and insects. Later, he turned to 
Genius^ ^°^ an y> an d hi s twentieth year first discovered in 
Britain the remarkable moss, Buxbaumia achylia. He 
was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society at twenty-one years 
of age. In 1815 he married Miss Turner, and for some time after 
that event had a large interest in, and the management of, a 
brewery at Halesworth in Suffolk. This business, however, which 
proved neither congenial to his tastes nor particularly successful, 
he relinquished in 1820. By this time his scientific pursuits (for 
he was already an assiduous collector and author) had gained him 
an extensive acquaintance with the leading naturalists of the day. 
On the recommendation of the most influential of these — Sir Joseph 
Banks — he was appointed to the Chair of Botany in Glasgow Univer- 
sity. His career as a lecturer there was a remarkably successful 
one. Not only was the charm of his eloquence greatly enhanced 
by his fine voice and handsome presence, but the solid attributes of 
knowledge and earnestness were apparent to all his students. He 
was knighted by William IV. in 1836, and retained his professorship 
at Glasgow until his transference to Kew in 1841. The great need 
g 33 
