203 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
placed in pots for exhibition. The colour is 
snow white, the flowers are large and well- 
formed, and freely produced. It grows from 
6 to 9 inches high, and from all appearances 
it will prove an invaluable plant for beds and 
ribbon-borders. 
OBITUARY. 
Sir William Jackson Hooker, Director 
of Kew Gardens, died at Kew on the 12th of 
August, at the advanced age of 80. He was 
descended from the same Exeter family as the 
“judicious Hooker,” author of the “ Treatise 
on Ecclesiastical Polity” in the sixteenth 
century; was born at Norwich on the 6th of 
July, 1785, and received his education at the 
High School of that city. Having been left 
an ample independence in landed property by 
his godfather he was able to devote himself to 
the study of natural history, for which he at 
an early age manifested a strong inclination. 
For some time entomology occupied much of 
his attention, but it was directed to botany 
soon afterwards in consequence of his having 
made the acquaintance of Sir James Edward 
Smith, who was the purchaser of the collec¬ 
tions and library of Linnaeus, and founder of 
the Linnean Society. It is a singular fact 
that Norwich should be so prolific in great 
botanists, for Sir James was likewise a native 
of that city, and not far from it too was born 
Dr. Lindley, Indeed, Norwich had been so 
prolific in botanists before these three came to 
renown that Sir James published a “ Biogra¬ 
phical Notice of Norwich Botanists.” Proba¬ 
bly this love of flowers may be traced to the 
Flemings who were driven from their native 
country by the tyranny of the Spaniards, and 
settled at Norwich in the end of the sixteenth 
century and established the staples of the place. 
To return from this digression, Hooker when 
he came of age made extensive excursions in 
Scotland, and in 1809 he visited Iceland, but 
all his notes and drawings were destroyed in 
consequence of the burning of the ship in 
which he returned, himself having a narrow 
escape. The recollections of this journey 
furnished him materials for his first work “Re¬ 
collections of a Tour in Iceland,” which was 
published in 1811, and this was followed by a 
“Monograph of British Jungermanniae” or 
Scale Mosses, illustrated with beautiful cop¬ 
perplate engravings of magnified dissections 
of that lowly tribe of plants of unknown uses. 
This work, completed in 1816, established his 
reputation as a botanist. Having married in 
1815 he settled at Halesworth in Suffolk, but 
still kept up his intimacy with numerous emi¬ 
nent botanists, and there it was that he com¬ 
menced the formation of his great herbarium 
which was afterwards transferred to Kew. In 
1818 he completed, in conjunction with Dr. 
Taylor, a work on British Mosses entitled 
“ Muscologia Britannica,” and this was fol¬ 
lowed by “Musci Exotici,” a description of 
the foreign species then known. Having 
some time previous to his marriage sold his 
landed property, with the view of proceeding 
to Ceylon, and invested the amount realised 
in other securities, which ultimately became 
much deteriorated in value, he was led to 
accept the appointment of Regius Professor of 
Botany at Glasgow, the emoluments of which 
at that time were little over £100 a-year, the 
number of botanical students being only 
twenty-onfc; but his lectures became so popu¬ 
lar that his pupils increased to a hundred, and 
his income from his professorship and fees to 
upwards of £800 a-year. In 1821 he pub¬ 
lished “Flora Scotica,” in 1823 “Flora Exo¬ 
tica,” arranged according to the natural 
method; and the former work a few years 
later was extended to the whole of the Uni¬ 
ted Kingdom. In 1826 he became editor of 
the Botanical Magazine, a standard botanical 
authority, which he carried on up to the time 
of his decease, and left in a much improved 
form ; and in 1827 commenced, in conjunction 
with Dr. Greville, “leones Filicum,” a series 
of plates and descriptions of Ferns. Besides 
the above, botanical literature was enriched 
during his residence at Glasgow with several 
other works, such as “ leones Plantarum,” 
the botany of several arctic expeditions, and 
“ Flora Boreali-Americana.” In 1835 he was 
knighted by William IV.; and in 1841 he 
was appointed Director of Kew Gardens, 
on the retirement of William Townsend 
Aiton, Esq. The gardens were then very 
different from what they now are; the 
public were admitted under restrictions which 
were felt to be vexatious; the amount 
of money devoted to keeping them up was 
comparatively small; the structures were 
falling into decay ; the grounds were neg¬ 
lected; there was even some danger of the 
establishment being altogether broken up. 
But before any steps were taken the Govern¬ 
ment called on some gentlemen to report on 
the state of Kew and the other Royal Gardens, 
and the result of their recommendations was 
that a more liberal policy was resolved on, and 
it was determined to place Kew Gardens on 
a footing commensurate with the dignity of 
the nation and their importance to science. 
The first step taken was the appointment of 
Sir William Hooker to the directorship, and 
no one could have been better fitted for carry¬ 
ing out the task, uniting, as he did, untiring 
energy and perseverance to his great botanical 
attainments, and the experience which he had 
acquired in the management of the Glasgow 
Botanic Garden. Accordingly, in a few 
months after his appointment, we find that 
old boundaries had been broken down, old 
houses had been repaired, and new ones were 
being erected, that four acres had been added 
to the grounds, and thickets of worthless 
bushes had been swept away. A new order 
of things had been inaugurated; and Kew 
went on year by year improving in appear¬ 
ance and increasing in importance, till it has 
