KEW, 1850 TO 1865 
49 
another John Smith, who had had a successful career as a cultivator 
of tropical plants in the neighbouring garden of Sion House. 
Sir William Hooker died at Kew on August I2th, 1865, having 
passed his eightieth birthday by six weeks. He had carried on 
his directorial duties with unabated vigour up to within 
four or five days of his death. He was buried in 
Death of Sir 
W. Hooker. 
the village churchyard. How much he had accom- 
plished for Kew has already — but perhaps inadequately — been 
told. It would be difficult indeed to imagine one and the 
same establishment under aspects more diverse than the Kew 
of 1841 and that of 1865. From a somnolent, loosely-managed, 
worn-out institution, whose chief glory was its traditions, it had 
developed into the first botanic garden in the world. In these 
twenty-four years the area devoted to botany and to scientific 
and ornamental horticulture had increased from 15 to 250 acres, 
and a large portion of it had been re-laid out. The Palm House 
and Temperate House had been built, as well as the Cactus House 
and other smaller ones ; the important department of Economic 
Botany had been founded, and three museums devoted to its illustra- 
tion ; and a botanical library and herbarium had been established. 
To do what had been done, a public purse, freely opened, was 
of course essential. Equally necessary, too, were Royal help and 
sympathy ; but these, as in the other palmy days of 
Kew, seventy or eighty years before, had been fully 
given. Yet to bring all these into the service of the 
institution required tact and diplomacy, the faculty of inspiring con- 
fidence, and personal prestige. Sir William Hooker owed much, no 
doubt, to his attractive personality, but he carried with him also 
the repute of one of the leading scientific men of his time. It has 
to be remembered that, in addition to his administrative duties at 
Kew and his voluminous official correspondence, he was the author 
of many important scientific works. In a sketch of his life and labours 
contributed to the “Annals of Botany” by his son a catalogue of 
his works is given. It includes many standard books on botany; 
scientific serial publications, such as the “ Botanical Magazine,” for 
thirty-seven volumes of which he wrote nearly all the text ; and 
more popular publications, like the “ Guide to Kew Gardens,” of 
which he brought out twenty-one editions, the first in 1847. 
Hooker’s 
Personality. 
1 
