i4i 
Notice of Book. 
work crowned by great achievement. Mr. Huxley has treated his subject with 
admirable tact. It is Hooker himself, through his letters, who is telling the story of 
his life. And in this self-revelation we seem to gain an intimate knowledge of the 
man himself, ever modest — almost to a fault — and endowed with a nobility of character 
which would have ensured for him an honoured position, whatever the walk of life he 
might have marked out for his own. 
It is impossible to read the ‘ Letters ’ without being struck by the wisdom, founded 
as it was on natural shrewdness' and accumulated experience, which made Hooker’s 
advice and criticism so valuable to his friends and colleagues. He was not always 
easy to convince at the outset, and this quality of caution, which had served him in 
good stead both in scientific and official matters, again found expression when the 
inception of the ‘Annals of Botany ’ was under discussion. But no sooner had he 
assured himself that the enterprise deserved his support than he rendered it with his 
whole heart. It is safe to say that some day, when the early history of this Journal 
comes to be written, the share taken by Hooker in launching the new enterprise on 
the botanical world will be seen to have been no small one. 
